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THE 


NATIONAL 

M 

ENCYCLOPEDIA 


FOR THE 

HOME, SCHOOL AND LIBRARY 




VOL. I. 


CHICAGO 

NATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA COMPANY 


1923 



# 


COPYRIGHT 1»23 

EDUCATOR PRESS 

MADE] IN U. S. A. 


I 

i 


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* . 

* « * 

C 


NOV 19 1923 

©C1A759887 

j 


AUTHORS AND EDITORS 


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s? 


Editorial Director 
HAROLD M. STANFORD, B.S. 

National President International Education Bureau; Chief Editor “Standard 
Educator”; Former Head Department of Physical Sciences, 

State Teachers College, Moorhead, Minn. 


Staff Editors 

WILLIAM F. ROCHELEAU 

Former Director of Training School, Southern Illinois State Normal 
University; Author of “Great American Industries,” 
“Geography of Commerce and Industry,” etc. 


GEORGE BRIGGS AITON, M.A. 

Author and Compiler of “Aiton’s Encyclo¬ 
pedia”; Inspector of High Schools, 
Minnesota, 1883-1914. 

ALBERT BARR 

Journalist and Statistician 

W. RAINSFORD BOAG, A.B., A.M. 
(Dublin and Edinburgh) ; B.D., 
D.D. (Durham and Oxford) 

Author Study Courses International Bureau 
of Study Clubs 

MARY BLANCHARD MURPHY, B.A. 

Instructor in Literature, Minneapolis, Minne¬ 
sota and Kenosha, Wisconsin 

EDWARD G. QUIGLD*, A.M. 

Asst. Supt. City Schools, Seattle, Washington; 
Formerly Department of Education, 
University of Minnesota 

THOMAS A. RUSSELL, A.M., LL.D. 

Editordn-Chief Webster’s Universal Dic¬ 
tionary; Author “American Cyclopedia 
of the Automobile,” etc.; Associate 
Editor “Railway Review,” 

Chicago. 


EMORY ADAMS ALLEN 

Author of “History of Civilization,” 8 Vol¬ 
umes; “The Knowledge Book,” 
and other titles. 

OSCAR L. BRILLIANT, Ph.D. 

Universities of Budapest and Vienna; Mem¬ 
ber Editorial Staff “Encyclopedia Brit- 
tannica,” London, England 

ELLEN TORELLE NAGLER, M.A. 

Former Dean Milwaukee-Downer College, 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

ALBERT W. RANKIN, B. A. 

Professor of Pedagogy, University of Min¬ 
nesota; Former Inspector State Graded 
Schools, Minnesota 

EVA A. SMEDLEY 

Literature and Dramatics, Junior High 
School, Evanston, Ill. 

WILLIS MASON WEST, M.A. 

Former Head Department of History, Uni¬ 
versity of Minnesota, Author of 
West’s Histories 

WM. ZIMMERMAN, JR., A.B. 

Managing Editor “Illinois in the World 
War”; Bond Specialist, Chicago. 


Editor for Canada 
SINCLAIR LAIRD, M.A., B.Phil. 

Dean School for Teachers, Macdonald College, Province of Quebec, Canada 


Contributors and Reviewers* 


F. L. ALLEN 

Secretary, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Mass. 

FRANK W. BALLOU 

Superintendent of Public Schools, 
Washington, D. C. 

J. H. BENTLEY 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Duluth, Minn. 

J. E. BENSON 

Inspector of Public Schools, 
Windsor, Ont. 

FRANCIS G. BLAIR 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Springfield, Ill. 

GEO. J. BLAZIER 

Librarian, Marietta College, 
Marietta, Ohio. 

W. F. BOND 

State Superintendent of Education, 
Jackson, Miss. 

W. W. BORDEN 

Superintendent of Schools, 

South Bend, Ind. 

F. M. BRALLEY 

President, College of Industrial Arts, 
Denton, Tex. 

M. L. BRITTAIN 

President, Georgia School of Technology, 
Atlanta, Ga. 

E. C. BROOKS 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Raleigh, N. C. 

S. P. BROOKS 

President, Baylor University, 

Waco, Tex. 


EDWIN C. BROOME 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

E. E. BROWN 

Assistant State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, Oklahoma City, Okla. 

PAUL V. BUNN 

Executive Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, 
St. Louis, Mo. 

H. D. BURRILL 

President and Publisher, Syracuse Journal, 
Syracuse, N. Y. 

BENJAMIN J. BURRIS 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Indianapolis, Ind. 

E. W. BUTTERFIELD 

State Commissioner of Education, 
Concord, N. H. 

C. E. BYRD 

Superintendent of Parish Schools, 
Shreveport, La. 

JOHN CALLAHAN 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Madison, Wis. 

WM. H. CARPENTER 

Provost of Columbia University, 

New York City 

CHAS. CARROLL 

Secretary and Deputy for Vocational 
Education, Providence, R. I. 

W. S. CARTER 

Chief Superintendent of Education, 
Fredericton, New'Brunswick. 

C. O. CASE 

Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Phoenix, Ariz. 


Contributors and Reviewers* 


W. S. CAWTHON 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Tallahassee, Fla. 

W. G. CHAMBERS 

Dean of Education, 

State College, Pa. 

P. P. CLAXTON 

Former U. S. Commissioner of Education. 
Provost, University of Alabama, 
University, Ala. 

B. B. COBB 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Waco, Tex. 

GEO. W. COLVIN 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Frankfort, Ky. 

ALBERT S. COOK 

State Superintendent of Education, 
Baltimore, Md. 

JOHN V. CONWAY 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Sante Fe, New Mexico. 

FRANK B. COOPER 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Seattle, Wash. 

DAVID B. CORSON 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Newark, N. J. 

EDWIN A. COTTRELL 

Director, Bureau of Research and 
Information, San Francisco, Calif. 

JOHN B. CREEDON 

President, Georgetown University, 
Georgetown, Md. 

ROBERT C. DAVIS 

Adjutant General, War Department, 
Washington, D. C. 


GEO. H. DEANE 

Municipal Inspector of Schools, 
Victoria, British Columbia. 

C. H. DEMPSEY 

State Commissioner of Education, 
Montpelier, Vt. 

WM. DINWIDDIE 

Statistician, Research Department, 
Association of Commerce, 

New Orleans, La. 

ARTHUR DONDINEAU 

Supervisor of Social Sciences, Public Schools, 
Detroit, Mich. 

W. J. DUNLAP 

Director, University Extension, University 
of Toronto, Ont. 

J. J. EARLY 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Sheridan, Wyo. 

THOS. E. FINNEGAN 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Harrisburg, Pa. 

A. P. FOSTER 

Secretary, Tennessee Historical Commission, 
Nashville, Tenn. 

HAROLD S. FOSTER 

General Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, 
St. Joseph, Mo. 

PL C. FRAZER 

Inspector of Schools, Prince Rupert, 
British Columbia. 

JOHN T. GARRETT 

Inspector of Schools, Souris, Prince 
Edward Island. 

CARLETON B. GIBSON 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Savannah, Ga. 


Contributors and Reviewers* 


C. B. GLENN 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Birmingham, Alabama. 

E. J. GOODSPEED 

Secretary, University of Chicago, 
Chicago, Ill. 

E. U. GRAFF 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Indianapolis, Ind. 

GEO. G. GREEN 

Lane Technical High School, 
Chicago, Ill. 

WM. A. GREESON 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Grand Rapids, Mich. 

JAS. E. GREGG 

President, Hampton Normal and Agricultural 
Institute, Hampton, Va. 

W. M. GREGORY 

Professor of Geography, School of Education, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

J. O. HALL 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Hutchinson, Kans. 

R. C. HALL 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Little Rock, Ark. 

HARRIS HART 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Richmond, Va. 

ERNEST C. HARTWELL 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Buffalo, N. Y. 

J. H. HECKMAN 

Assistant State Superintendent of Schools, 
Charleston, W. Va. 


H. L. HODGKINS 

President, George Washington University, 
Washington, D. C. 

DAVID HOLT 

Publicity Director, Chamber of Commerce, 
Mobile, Ala. 

W. KARL HOPKINS 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Ogden, Utah. 

ERNEST M. HOPKINS 

President, Dartmouth College, 
Hanover, N. H. 

W. J. HUNTING 

* State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Carson City, Nev. 

WM. F. HUTCHINS 

President, Berea College, 

Berea, Ky. 

WM. B. JACK 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Portland, Ore. 

C. N. JENSEN 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction,* 
Salt Lake City, Utah. 

HENRY C. JOHNSON 

Superintendent of Schools, 

San Diego, Calif. 

THOS. E. JOHNSON 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Lansing, Mich. 

C. EDWARD JONES 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Albany, N. Y- 

R. L. JONES 

President, Middle Tennessee Normal School, 
Murfreesboro, Tenn. 


Contributors and Reviewers* 


JOSEPH R. KENNEDY 

Dean, College of Education, 
University, N. D. 

E. C. RISK 

Secretary, Clark University, 
Worcester, Mass. 

J. E. KNIGHT 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Tampa, Fla. 

D. W. KNOX 

Captain, United States Navy, Officer in 
Charge, Historical Section, 
Washington, D. C. 

L. C. LORD 

President, State Normal School, 
Charleston, Ill. 

J. M. McCALLIE 

Director of Educational Research and Effi¬ 
ciency, Board of Education, 

Trenton, N. J. 

e. n. McClellan 

Major, United States Marine Corps, Officer 
in Charge, Historical Section, 
Washington, D. C. 

D. P. McCOLL 

Superintendent of Education, 

Regina, Saskatchewan. 

HENRY N. McCRACKEN 

President, Vassar College, 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

a. a. McDonald 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Sioux Falls, S. D. 

A. H. MACKAY 

Superintendent of Education, 
Halifax, Nova Scotia 

J. H. McROBERTS 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Port Arthur, Ontario. 


J. W. MARSHALL 

Chief Inspector of Schools, 

Welland, Ont. 

LOUISE W. MEARS 

Department of Geography, 

State Normal School, 

Milwaukee, Wis. 

ALEXANDER MEIKLEJOHN 

President, Amherst College, 

Amherst, Mass. 

GEORGE MELCHER 

Assistant Superintendent of City Schools, 
Kansas City, Mo. 

M. E. MELTON 

Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, 
Texarkana, Texas. 

A. B. MEREDITH 

State Commissioner of Education, 
Hartford, Conn. 

JESS. W. MILEY 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Topeka, Kans. 

KATHERINE A. MORTON 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Cheyenne, Wyo. 

E. W. MUMFORD 

Secretary, University of Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

MINNIE J. NEILSON 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Bismark, N. D. 

HAZEL H. OTT 

Inspector Graded and High Schools, State 
Department of Public Instruction, 

Des Moines, la. 

E. A. PACE . 

General Secretary, Catholic University of 
America, Washington, D. C. 


Contributors and Reviewers* 


B. E. PACKARD 

Deputy Commissioner of Education, 
Augusta, Me. 

F. V. N. PAINTER 

Dean of Education, Roanoke College, 
Salem, Va. 

B. J. PALMER 

Director, Palmer School of Chiropractic, 
Davenport, la. 

WOODFORD PATTERSON 

Secretary, Cornell University. 

Ithaca, N. Y. 

ELLEN F. PENDLETON 

President, Wellesley College, 
Wellesley, Mass. 

ELMORE PETERSON 

Director, Extension Division, 
University of Colorado. 

Boulder, Colo. 

MINA PETRASHEK 

Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Helena, Mont. 

M. C. POTTER 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Milwaukee, Wis. 

J. HAROLD POWERS 

Director, Department of Music, 

State Normal School, 

Mt. Pleasant, Mich. 

ORVILLE C. PRATT 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Spokane, Wash. 

JOSEPHINE C. PRESTON 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Olympia, Washington. 

WALTER PRITCHARD 

Department of Education, University of 
Louisiana, Baton Rouge, La. 


B. A. QUIGLEY 

President, Collegiate Institute, 
Selkirk, Manitoba. 

ETHEL E. RED FI ELD 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Boise, Ida. 

JEREMIAH RHODES 

Superintendent of Schools, 

San Antonio, Texas. 

C. A. RICHARDSON 

Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, 
Medicine Hat, Alberta. 

W. M. RIGGS 

President, Clemson Agricultural College, 
Clemson, S. C. 

ALFRED RONCOVIER1 

Superintendent of Schools, 

San Francisco, Calif. 

C. E. ROSE 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Tucson, Ariz. 

GRACE D. ROSE 

Librarian 
Des Moines, la. 

H. H. SEERLEY 

President, Iowa State Teachers College, 
Cedar Falls, la. 

i 

EDW. B. SELLEW 

Superintendent of Schools, 

New r Haven, Conn. 

FRED S. SHAW 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Pierre, South Dakota. 

W. H. SHEPARD 

Department of Social Science, 

North High School, 
Minneapolis, Minn. 


Contributors and Reviewers* 


ABBIE L. SIMMONS 

Department of Literature, Agricultural 
College, Fargo, No. Dak. 

FRANK L. SMART 

% 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Davenport, la. 

WM. H. SMILEY 

Assistant Superintendent of City Schools, 
Denver, Colo. 

J. H. SMITH 

Inspector of Schools, 

Stratford, Ontario. 

PAYSON SMITH 

Commissioner of Education, 

Boston, Mass. 

ROY C. SMITH 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Morgantown, W. Va. 

A. H. STALEY 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Hastings, Nebr. 

ALLISON F. STANLEY 

Director of Public Relations, University of 
Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

A. J. STOUT 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Topeka, Kans. 

C. J. STRAHAN 

Assistant Commissioner of Education, 
Trenton, N. J. 

J. C. SUTHERLAND 

Inspector General of Protestant Schools, 
Quebec. 

W. A. SUTTON 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Atlanta, Ga. 


J. E. SWEARINGEN 

State Superintendent of Education, 
Columbia, S. C. 

B. W. TINKER 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Waterbury, Conn. 

EDW.J. TOBIN 

Superintendent of Schools, Cook Co. 
Chicago, Ill. 

P. C. TONNING 

Deputy State Commissioner of Education, 

St. Paul, Minn. 

I-I. M. TORY 

President, Alberta University, 
Edmonton, Alberta. 

H. M. VAN AUKEN 

Executive Secretary, Dubuque Chamber of 
Commerce, Dubuque, la. 

DAVID A. WARD 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Wilmington, Del. 

J. A. WHITEFORD 

Superintendent of Schools, 

Oklahoma City, Okla. 

SHERMAN WILLIAMS 

Chief of School Libraries Division, 

State Department of Education, 
Albany, N. Y. 

C. E. WILSON 

Executive Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, 
Salem, Ore. 

ISAAC O. WINSLOW 

Superintendent of Schools, 
Providence, R. I. 

F. HOWARD WINTERS 

Inspector of Teacher Training, Department 
of Education, Columbus, Ohio. 


* Partial List 


FOREWORD 


This reference work originated in response to an evident demand for something 
new in the encyclopedic field. The larger and more exhaustive treatises were too spe¬ 
cialized and technical for the every-day reader, besides being too costly, while the 
smaller ones were either reprints, abridgements, or condensations of some older or 
more extended work. It was felt that there was room for a modern presentation of 
the information and facts so necessary for access in every home, school, and library, 
and in a style and form that would lead to appreciation and frequent consultation. 
How well this object has been attained has been shown in part by the reception 
accorded the first edition of the work and is a question open for the public still 
further to decide. 

The preliminary edition, under the title Aiton’s Encyclopedia, met with such 
hearty and widespread commendation that an extension of its scope seemed warranted. 
All the various departments have been revised and new articles added so as to make 
a well-balanced and consistent whole. Countries and other subjects requiring treat¬ 
ment as a result of the World War have received special attention. The state and city 
articles have been reviewed and revised by actual residents w T ho are especially qualified 
to present these subjects satisfactorily by giving them accurate and appropriate 
treatment. The latest information has been secured wherever possible, and all 
statistical matter has been compiled from the most recent available reports. 

While not assuming to cover the w r hole realm of human knowledge, The 
Standard Reference Work aims to be sufficiently comprehensive to meet the de¬ 
mands of all except those making an exhaustive research. The general reader does not 
wish to spend a half hour plodding through pages of irrelevant matter in search 
of the salient points that his questions demand. For such a reader as this and for 
all desiring the most vital and interesting points on a subject, this work is especially 
adapted. A definite plan has been followed in the distribution of material so that no 
department should be overlooked, and so that under each department should be 
included all topics of real value to the average reader. This has required a keen dis¬ 
crimination founded upon an extended experience in the various phases of educational 
effort, a qualification possessed in a remarkable degree by the editorial staff. 

As much of the reference work in the home as well as the school is incidental to 
the subject matter in courses of study, all topics of reference likely to be demanded 
in such courses are included. Geography naturally comes in for a large share of 
attention. In addition to countries, states, and leading cities, articles on explorers, 
plants, animals, and the various productions are included to supplement the text-book 
and furnish a sympathetic treatment of the fundamental facts there presented. A 
geography or atlas being so generally at hand, the policy of this work has been to 


utilize the space demanded by extensive maps for additional material less easily accessi- 
ble. A text-book of American history likewise being commonly available, much of 
detail in that field has given way to topics of general, current, and governmental 
interest, along such lines as taxation, arbitration, municipal problems, labor and 
capital, and economics, not so readily found elsewhere. The field of biography has 
been most carefully scanned and those names worthy of but perfunctory notice have 
been omitted altogether, thus making room for the adequate treatment of the names 
really significant, and the purpose has been in such articles to show why they are 
significant in the world’s history. 

The field of literature has furnished the basis for many topics aside from authors 
themselves. Noted books, poetic masterpieces, and the characters of familiar allusion 
in fiction and drama are here discussed for the student. Literary biography, especially 
emphasizing the conditions leading to authorship, is usually accompanied by a few 
brief quotations, as well as a critical estimate of the writer’s work, ..which makes this 
not merely a work of reference, a means to an end in the perusal and enjoyment of 
some other literary production, but a source of pleasure and profit per se. A sufficient 
number of articles on living writers gives a reasonable guide to current literary effort. 

In this work an attempt has been made to include articles on most scientific, 
industrial, and vocational topics. The grooving interest in agriculture, and the hope 
that this work may find its way largely into rural homes, have led to considerable space 
being given to this subject in its most practical aspects. The same is true of house¬ 
hold economics. 

The distinguishing characteristic of the work, however, is its style, for -which the 
readers are indebted to the original author, whose policy of abandoning the dry, terse 
presentation of bare facts, often characteristic of such a work, for a sympathetic treat¬ 
ment with literary merits of its own, has been followed to a greater or less extent by 
other writers and contributors. The work is unique in that it is actually interesting 
to read. Much of it has a distinct claim to recognition in the field of literary effort. 
The language is simple enough for any child who may consult it, and at the same 
time scholarly enough for an adult. The authors have made a special point of appeal¬ 
ing to the interest so as to induce young people as well as adults to acquire the habit 
of consulting the work. 

When the more exhaustive works of reference which have undergone numerous 
revisions are still marred by occasional errors in typography and subject matter, it is 
not to be hoped that this work will prove an absolute exception. Readers who may 
detect errors will extend a courtesy to the editors by reporting such cases and thus 
cooperating with them in their efforts to secure absolute fidelity to truth. 


H. M. S. 


PUBLISHERS’ NOTICE 




In presenting The Standard Reference Work to the public, it is confidently 
believed by the publishers that they are offering to the general reader a set of books 
of peculiar merit and of great practical value, at a price within the reach of every 
school and family. The authors, in plan, in selection of topics, and in scope and 
method of treatment, have been bound by no worn-out precedents in preparing a work 
to meet the demands of the present day. They have courageously omitted many 
threadbare topics usually found in works of reference which have nothing to justify 
their appearance in a work of this sort for the people. Such useless lumber as de¬ 
scriptions of hundreds of ordinary prosperous towns and biographies of numerous 
men of mere local note, facts which those in the immediate locality know and others 
care nothing about, has been discarded. This makes room for topics of greater 
consequence, each of which has been included for the distinct addition it makes to 
the work. 

Realizing the value of the body-matter in this reference set, the publishers have 
taken pride in bringing it out in keeping mechanically. The paper used is of superior 
quality and was selected with special reference to securing a surface best suited for the 
type and cuts, and at the same time avoiding that gloss so injurious to the eyes. 
Such a large, handsome type, we confidently assert, has never before been used in a 
reference work. The abundant illustrations in both character and quality are unex¬ 
celled. The modern method of full-page illustrations, rather than many inferior 
cuts distributed through the text, in the main, has been followed. The many half¬ 
tone plates in both black and duotone, as well as the numerous color plates, have been 
made at great expense especially for this work. In anticipation of the frequent and 
hard use we trust The Standard Reference Work will receive, the best material 
has been used in the binding and the most approved methods employed in securing the 
pages and cover. 

Though alphabetically arranged and with an extensive system of cross references 
in the text, in order to still further enlarge the usefulness of the wmrk, a most valuable 
Synthetical Index has been appended. All the topics which lend themselves readily 
to classification have been arranged systematically under general headings with appro¬ 
priate subdivisions. Thus is made available by consulting this index all the matter in 
the work relating to the subject desired. As a further aid in the use of the work a 
new department known as The Standard Educator has been added, containing out¬ 
lines, plans, type studies, and suggestions for a systematic and methodical course in the 
fundamentals of a general education. That the worth of the work may prove to be 
somewhat commensurate with the ideals and efforts in its preparation is the wish of 

The Publishers. . 


1 



A 


Aachen, or Aix-la-Chapelle, a'ken, or 
aks-la-sha-pel', a town of Prussia, an 
hour’s ride by rail to the westward of 
Cologne. Aachen is the German, Aix-la- 
Chapelle the French name. Both Aachen 
and Aix mean the waters, or fountains. 
The latter name is best known in history; 
the former is the present official or post- 
office name. Aachen is an ancient city. In 
the days of the Roman Empire it was a 
military camp in the vicinity of mineral 
springs, even then held in repute. It was 
a favorite residence of Charlemagne, who 
died and was buried here in 814. It was 
the northern capital of the medieval Ger¬ 
man Empire. Many emperors were crowned 
here. Diets were held and treaties of 
peace were concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle. 

Of the old buildings only a few remain, 
notably a cathedral erected in part by 
Charlemagne. The central part of this 
cathedral is eight-sided. The dome is sup¬ 
ported by massive marble pillars brought 
from an old palace in Ravenna. In the 
central aisle hangs a fine bronze chande¬ 
lier, presented by Frederick Barbarossa in 
1165. Bronze doors cast in 804, pillars, 
arches, a high pulpit, stained glass, a cop¬ 
per reading desk, the tomb of Otho III, 
the sarcophagus or stone coffin of Charle¬ 
magne, his hunting horn, and many other 
interesting objects may be seen. The re¬ 
galia of the German emperors were kept 
here until 1795, when they were trans¬ 
ferred to Vienna. 

A modern city of 144,000 people, with 
attractive streets, shops, large hotels and 
buildings, has grown up. The springs are 
impregnated with sulphur. I hey are still 
patronized by a fashionable concourse of 
8,000 patients a year, who come to drink 
the water and to bathe in it for their 


health. The walls of the ancient city 
have been razed to make room for modern 
promenades. See Charlemagne ; Vienna. 

Aaron, the elder brother of Moses and 
the first high priest of the Israelites. He 
was his brother’s spokesman before Pharaoh 
and a leader in the Exodus. The worship 
of the golden calf was permitted by him, 
for which he was not allowed to enter the 
promised land. See Moses. 

Abacus, ab'a-kus, a word of Greek ori¬ 
gin used in ancient times to designate a flat 
tray or board sprinkled with sand and 
used for drawing or making calculations. 
Its present meanings, seeming at first 
glance to vary widely, are all derived na¬ 
turally enough from that first meaning, 
in which use the word is now obsolete. 
In architecture the term abacus is applied 
to the upper part of the capital of a 
column, which was formerly a square, flat 
stone. It differs in varying forms of 
architecture, being either square or circu¬ 
lar; also either plain, grooved, or sculp¬ 
tured. The word abacus designates com¬ 
monly a calculating table or frame con¬ 
sisting of beads running in grooves or on 
rods. It is used in kindergartens and pri¬ 
mary grades in teaching the elements of 
numbers, and is called frequently a count¬ 
ing frame. In China and other countries 
of the Far East it is still used for making 
calculations. A tray or table with com¬ 
partments for holding bottles or cups bears 
also the name abacus. 

Abattoir. See Packing House. 
Abbey, Edwin A. (1852-1911), a cele¬ 
brated American artist. He was born in 
Philadelphia, but in 1878 removed to Lon¬ 
don where he continued to reside. He 
ranks among the foremost artists of the 
day, some of his most noted works being the 




ABBOT, THE—ABBOTT 


panels entitled The Quest of the Holy 
Grail, in the Boston public library, and a 
coronation picture of Edward VII. At the 
time of his death he was preparing a series 
of panels for the capitol at Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania, only about half of which 
were finished. Besides being an artist, he 
was noted as a writer, having published a 
number of books on art. He was a member 
of most of the leading art societies both in 
America and Europe. 

Abbot, The, a novel by Sir Walter 
Scott. This story is a sequel to The Monas¬ 
tery. It relates to the history of Mary, 
Queen of Scots. The author says of it, “I 
ventured to awaken, in a work of fiction, 
the memory of Queen Mary, so interesting 
by her wit, her beauty, her misfortunes, and 
the mystery which still does, and probably 
always will, overhang her history.” See 
Scott. 

Abbotsford, the famous residence of 
Walter Scott. In 1811 Scott paid $20,000 
for a farm of a hundred acres on the south 
bank of the Tweed. Of this property 
Lockhart writes, “The farm consisted of 
a rich meadow or haugh along the banks 
of the river, and about a hundred acres 
of ground behind, all in a neglected state, 
undrained, wretchedly enclosed, much of it 
covered with nothing better than the na¬ 
tive heath. The farm-house itself was 
small and poor, with a common kail-yard 
on one flank, and a staring barn on the 
other; while in front appeared a filthy 
pond, covered with ducks and duckweed, 
from which the whole tenement had de¬ 
rived the unharmonious designation of 
Clarty Hole.” 

Scott’s choice of the place, however, 
was determined by a beautiful view of the 
Tweed and of ruined Melrose Abbey, three 
miles away. He changed the name to that 
of a nearby ford, formerly used by the 
abbots of that famous abbey. Adjoining 
land was bought later. Scott laid out the 
grounds with taste. He planted about 
fifty acres with young trees, and had the 
satisfaction of living long enough to cut 
good sized trees planted by his own hand. 
What Scott declared at first should be a 
cottage developed into an irregular rect¬ 
angular building of proportions befitting 


a castle, and, like a castle, provided with 
turrets at every available angle. A fine 
entrance was adorned with trophies of the 
chase and ancient armor after the fashion 
of the Middle Ages. The property still 
belongs to Scott’s descendants on a daugh¬ 
ter’s side of the family. Scott’s library, 
rich in ballads and in books on witchcraft, 
is kept as he left it. Abbotsford is visited 
by several thousand people each year. No 
student should fail to read Washington 
Irving’s Visit to Abbotsford. 

See Scott; Melrosk 

Abbott, Jacob (1803-1879), an Ameri¬ 
can writer. He was born at Hallowell, 
Maine. He was a graduate of Bowdoin 
College, a student of divinity at Andover, 
a professor of mathematics in Amherst 
College, the principal of a girls’ school 
in Boston, and pastor of a Congregational 
church at Roxbury, Mass. He had a fond¬ 
ness for young people, and wrote several 
series of instructive story books. The best 
known of these are the Rollo Books in 
which he describes Rollo’s experiences 
while traveling in the United States and in 
various foreign countries. Mr. Abbott was 
for years one of the main contributors to 
Harper's Monthly. In his later years he 
retired to Farmington, Maine, where he 
died October 31, 1879. 

Abbott, John S. C. (1805-1877), an 
historical writer. A brother of Jacob Ab¬ 
bott. He also took a college course at 
Bowdoin, a theological course at Andover, 
and became a Congregational pastor. He 
had several charges, including the church 
at New Haven, where he died. He wrote 
a number of histories for young people, 
including a history of Frederick the 
Great, Cyrus, etc. Abraham Lincoln, 
whose chances for schooling were slight, 
read these histories with delight, and said 
that he owed to John S. C. Abbott all the 
knowledge of general history he ever ac¬ 
quired. Mr. Abbott wrote also a History 
of the Civil War in America. Other works 
of an ethical nature are The Mother at 
Home, The Child at Home, etc: 

Abbott, Lyman (1835 - 1922), a dis¬ 
tinguished clergyman and editor, was born 
in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In his youth 
he studied law and was admitted to the 


ABBREVIATIONS 


bar, and afterwards practiced in partner¬ 
ship with his two brothers. He gave up the 
law for theology and studied for the min¬ 
istry of the Congregational Church with 
his uncle, S. C. Abbott, and was ordained 
at Farmington, Me., in 1860. His first 
charge was in Terre Haute, Ind., where he 
remained for five years. As editor of the 
Christian Union , which was later to be 
known as The Outlook, he worked with 
Henry Ward Beecher, and here his broad 
interpretations of the Bible and religion re¬ 
sulted in the solution and spiritualization 
of many difficult social and civic problems 
of the day. After the death of Mr. 
Beecher, Dr. Abbott became pastor of Ply¬ 
mouth Church, Brooklyn, where he was 
installed January 16, 1889. He remained 
here until 1899, when he resigned. He 
was editor-in-chief of The Outlook and 
was connected with it for nearly 40 years. 

Dr. Abbott was one of the most active 
leaders in civic and religious movements in 
the United States. As editor, clergyman, 
author and theologian he exhibited a char¬ 
acter that impressed all by its serenity and 
poise. In his work as editor of The Out¬ 
look he came in contact with many famous 
men, and his loveliness of character made 
him many warm friends. Before entering 
the pulpit Dr. Abbott, in collaboration 
with his brother, wrote two novels: Cone- 
cut Corners, and Matthew Caraby. Among 
his important works are: The Result of 
Emancipation in the United States; Old 
Testament Shadows of New Testament 
Truths; A Layman’s Story; Dictionary of 
Religious Knowledge; A Study in Human 
Nature; The Theology of an Evolutionist; 
The Evolution of Christianity; Social 
Problems; and The Problems of Life. The 
following words of his are well known: 
“He who denies the brotherhood of man 
is as much an infidel as he who denies the 
fatherhood of God.” He died October 
22, 1922. 

Abbreviations.—The following list in¬ 
cludes the abbreviations in common use. 
Abbreviations used by newspapers are usu¬ 
ally of temporary significance, and are 
omitted. 

A Acre; America. 

A.B. or B.A .Artium Baccalaureus, Bachelor of 
Arts. 


A. D. 

Anno Domini. In the year of our 
Lord. 

adj., or Adj. 

Adjective- 

ad- lib. 

Ad libitum (L., at pleasure). 

adv. 

Advalorem; Adverb; Adverbially; 
Adversus (L-, against) ; Adver¬ 


tisement; Advocate. 

AEtatis (L., of age). 

ae., aet., aetat. 

A. E. F. 

American Expeditionary Forces. 

A- F. A. M., 

or A. F. & A. M- Ancient Free and 
Accepted Masons. 

Ag 

Argentum (L., silver). 

agr.,or agric 

:. Agriculture; Agricultural. 

agt. 

Agent. ✓ 

A1 

Aluminum. 

Ala. 

Alabama. 

Alas. 

Alaska. 

Alt. 

Altitude. 

Am. 

America; American. 

a. m. 

Ante meridiem (L., before noon). 

A. M. 

Anno Mundi (L., in the year of the 
world) ; Ave Maria (L., Hail 
Mary). 

Anon. 

Anonymous. 

Ans., or ans. 

Answer. 

A. 0. U. 

American Ornithologists’ Union. 

Apr. 

April 

Aq., or aq. 

Aqua (L., water). 

As 

Arsenic. 

Att. or Atty. Attorney. 

Au 

Aurum (L., gold). 

Aug. 

August. 

Av. 

Average; avenue. 

A. V. 

Authorized Version. 

avdp. 

Avoirdupois. 

B 

b. 

Born. 

B. A. 

British America; Bachelor of Arts. 

Ba 

Barium. 

bal. 

Balance. 

Bart. 

Baronet. 

bbl. 

(pi. bbls.) Barrel. 

B. C. 

Before Christ; British Columbia. 

B. C.E. 

Bachelor of Civil Engineering. 

B. C. L. 

Bachelor of Civil Law. 

B. D. 

Bachelor of Divinity. 

Bdls. 

Bundles. 

Bds. 

(Bound in) Boards. 

Be 

Beryllium. 

B. I. 

British India. 

Bi 

Bismuth. 

Bor 

Boron. 

Bot. 

Botanical; botanist; botany; bought. 

Bp. 

Bishop. 

Bro. 

Brother; (pi., bros.), Brother. 

B. S. 

Baccalaureus scientice, Bachelor of 
Science. 

Bus., or bush.Bushel. 

c 

c 

Carbon. 

c 

Carton; cathode, cent*; centime; 
centimeter; century; chapter; 
child; circa (L., about); congius 
(L., gallon); cost; cubic; cur¬ 
rent. 


ABBREVIATIONS 


Ca. 

Calcium; calendar; calends; ca¬ 
lorie. 

Cal., Calif. 

California. 

Can. 

Canada. 

Caps., or caps. Capitals. 

Capt. 

Captain. 

Cash. 

Cashier. 

Cath. 

Catholic; Catherine; Cathedral. 

Cd 

Cadmium. 

C. E. 

Civil Engineer. 

Ce 

Cerium. 

Cel. 

Celsius. 

Celt. 

Celtic. 

Cent. 

Centigrade; Centum; Central; 
Century. 

Cf., or cf. 

Confer; compare. 

eg. 

Centigram. 

C. G. S. 

Centimeter; gram; second. 

C. H. 

Courthouse; custom house. 

Chanc. 

Chancellor. 

Chap. 

Chapter. 

Chem. 

Chemistry; chemical; chemist. 

circ. 

Circa circiter, circum (L., about). 
Chlorine. 

Cl 

cl 

Centiliter. 

cm 

Centimeter. 

cml. 

Commercial. 

Co 

Cobalt. 

Co. 

Company; county. 

C. O.D. 

Cash (or collect) on Delivery. 

Col. 

Colonel. 

Col., or Colo. Colorado. 

Com. 

Commissioner; Commodore; Com¬ 
mittee; Commerce; Common; 
Commander. 

Cong. 

Congress; Congregation; Congre¬ 
gational. 

Conj., or conj. Conjunction. 

Conn. 

Connecticut. 

Cor. 

Corinthians. 

Cor. Sec. 

Corresponding Secretary. 

C. P.A. 

Certified Public Accountant. 

Cr. 

Credit; creditor; chromium. 

c. s. 

Christian Science; Civil Service. 

C. S.A. 

Confederate States of America. 

Ct. 

Connecticut; Count; court. 

Cu 

Cuprum (L., copper). 

cu., cub. 

Cubic. 

cwt. 

Hundredweight. 

eye. or cyclo. Cyclopedia; cyclopedic. 

D 

D. 

David; didymium. 

D., or d. 

Day; died; dime; daughter; dep¬ 
uty; degree. 

Dan. 

Danish; Daniel. 

D. C. 

District of Columbia. 

D. D. 

Divinitatis Doctor (L., Doctor of 
Divinity). 

Dec. 

December; declination; declension. 

Del. 

Delaware; delegate. 

Del., or del. 

Delinea'vit, (L., he or she, drew it). 

Dem. 

Democrat; democratic. 

Den. 

Denmark. 

Dep. 

Deputy; department. 

Dept. 

Department; deponent. 


Deut. 

Dft., or dft. 
D. G. 


D. H. 

Diet. 

Dim., or dim. 
Div. 

dl. 

D. Lit. 

dm. 

Do., or do 
Doz., or doz. 
Dr. 
dr. 

D. S. C. 

D. S.M. 

D. V. 

Dwt., or dwt. 


Deuteronomy. 

Defendant. 

Dei gratia (L., by the grace of 
God) ; Deo gralias (L., thanks to 
God) ; Director General. 
Deadhead. 

Dictionary 

Diminutive; diminuendo. 

Dividend; division; divide; divid¬ 
ed; divisor. 

Deciliter. 

Doctor of Literature. 

Decimeter. 

Ditto. 

Dozen; dozens. 

Debtor; doctor. 

Dram; drawer. 

Distinguished Service Cross. 
Distinguished Service Medal. 
Deovolente (L., God willing). 
Pennyweight. 


E. East; English. 

Eccl., or Eccles. Ecclesiastes; Ecclesiastical. 

Ed. Editor. 

Ed., or ed. Edition. 

Edw. Edward. 

e. g. Exempli gratia(L. y for example). 

E. I. East Indies; East India. 

E. M. F. Electro-motive force. 

Eng. England; English; engraving. 

Engin. Engineering. 

Eph. Ephesians; Ephraim. 

Epiph. Epiphany. 

Epis. Episcopal. 

Eq., or eq. Equal; equivalent. 

Er Erbium. 

Esq., or Esqr.Esquire. 


et 


so 


et al. Et alibi (L., and elsewhere) ; 

alii (L., and others). 

etc. Et cetera (L., and others, and 

forth). 

et seq. Et sequens (L., and the following). 

Ex. Example; exception; Exodus. 

Exch. Exchequer; exchange, 

exc. Excellent; except; excepted; excep¬ 

tion. 

exp. Export; express, 

exr. Executor, 

exrx. Executrix. 

ext. External; extinct; extra; extract. 


F 

f 


F. 

F. A. M. 
fac. 

F. A. I. A. 

fam. 

Fe 


F 

Fluorine. 

Farthing; fathom; feet; feminine; 
fine; flower; folio; foot; forte; 
franc. 

Fahrenheit; Father; Fellow 7 ; 

French; Friday. 

Free and Accepted Masons. 
Facsimile. 

Fellow of the American Institute 
of Architects. 

Familiar; family. 

Ferrum (L., iron). 


ABBREVIATIONS 


Feb. 

February. 

ff. 

Folios; forte. 

F. F. V. 

First families of Virginia. 

FI., or fl. 

Florin, florins. 

Fla. 

Florida. 

fo. 

Folio. 

F. 0. B., or f. o. b. Free on board. 

Fr. 

France; French. 

Fri. 

Friday. 

Ft., or ft. 

Foot; feet; fort. 

fr. 

Fragment. 

freq. 

Frequent. 

fur. 

Furlong. 

fut. 

Future. 

G 

g 

Gauge; genitive; gram; guide; 
guinea or guineas; gulf. 

G. 

German. 

Ga. 

Georgia; gallium. 

General Assembly. 

G. A. 

Gael. 

Gaelic. 

Gal. 

Galatians; Galen. 

Gal., or gal. 

Gallon or gallons. 

G. A. R. 

Grand Army of the Republic. 

G. B. 

Great Britain. 

Gen. 

Genesis; general; Geneva. 

Geo. 

George. 

Geog. 

Geography. 

geol. 

Geology. 

Geom. 

Geometry. 

Ger., or Germ. German. 

Gi., or gi. 

Gill; gills. 

Gov. 

Governor. 

Gr., or gr. 

Grain; grand; great. 

Gram. 

Grammar. 

Gro., or gro. 

Gross. 

H 

H 

Hydrogen. 

h. 

Harbor; hard; height; high; hour; 
husband. 

ha. 

Hectare. 

Hab. corp. 

Habeas corpus. 

H. B. C. 

Hudson’s Bay Company. 

H. B. M. 

His (or Her) Britannic Majesty. 
House of Commons; Heralds’ Col¬ 
lege. 

H. C. 

Hdkf. 

Handkerchief. 

Heb., or Hebr. Hebrew, Hebrews. 

Hg 

Hydrargyrum (L., mercury). 

H. H. 

His (or Her) Highness; His Holi¬ 
ness (the Pope). 

Hhd., or hhd.Hogshead. 

H. L. 

House of Lords. 

hi 

Hectoliter. 

H. M. 

His (or Her) Majesty. 

hm 

Hectometer. 

H. M. S. 

His (or Her) Majesty’s Steamer, 
Ship, or Service. 

Hon. 

Honorable. 

Hort. 

Horticulture; horticultural. 

H. P. 

Horse Power. 

H.R. % 

House of Representatives. 

Hr., or hr. 

Hour. 

H.R. H. 

His (or Her) Royal Highness. 


I 

I 

Iodine. 

I. 

Idaho; lmperator (L., Emperor; 

Ia. 

island. 

Iowa. 

Ib., ib., Ibid., 

or ibid. Ibidem, in the same 

place. 

Ich., or Ichth. ichthyology. 

id 

Idem (L., the same). 

Ida. 

Idaho. 

I. e., or I. E. 

Id est (L., that is). 

Ill. 

Illinois. 

Imp. 

Imperial. 

In., or in. 

Inch; inches. 

Incog. 

Incognito, unknown. 

Ind. 

India; Indian; Indians; Indiana. 

Ind., ind., Indie., or indie. Indicative. 

Inf., or inf. 

Infinitive. 

In loc., or in 

loc. In loco, In its place. 

inst. 

Instant (the present month). 

Int., or int. 

Interior; interjection; internal; in¬ 

Inv. 

ternational; interpreter; intrans¬ 
itive. 

Invoice. 

I. 0. F. 

Independent Order of Foresters. 

I. 0. G. T. 

Independent Order of Good Temp¬ 

I. 0. O. F. 

lars. 

Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

I. 0. U. 

I owe you (an acknowledgment 

Ir. 

for money). 

Ireland; Irish; iridium. 

is. 

Island; isle. 

Is., or Isa. 

Isaiah. 

I.T. 

Indian Territory. 

It,, or Ital. 

Italian; italic; Italy. 

Industrial Workers of the World. 

I. W. W. 

J. 

J 

Judge; Justice; Julius. 

January. 

Jan. 

J. c. 

Jesus Christ; Julius Caesar. 

Jona. 

Jonathan. 

J.P. 

Justice of the Peace. 

J. Prob. 

Judge of Probate. 

Jr., or jr. 

Junior. 

Jul. 

July* 

Jun., or jun. 

Junior. 


K 

K. 

King; knight; (L., kalium) ; potas- 

slum. 

Kan., or Kans. Kansas. 

K. B. 

Knight of the Bath. 

K. C. B. 

Knight Commander of the Bath. 

Ken., or Ky. 

Kentucky. 

K. G. 

Knight of the Garter (in Great 

kg. 

Britain). 

Kilogram. 

kl. 

Kiloliter. 

km. 

Kilometer. 

K. P. 

Knights of Pythias. 

L. 

L 

Lady; Latin; Law; Left; Lord; 

L., or 1. 

Low; Lithium; London. 

Lake ; lane ; latitude ; League ; Line; 

Link. 







ABBREVIATIONS 


L., Lb., lb., or lb. Libra, A pound .in weight. 

L., 1., or £ 

A pound sterling. 

I. 

Liter. 

La. 

Louisiana; Lanthanum. 

Lat. 

Latin. 

Lat., or lat. 

Latitude. 

1. c. 

Lower case; Loco citato (L., in the 
place cited). 

L. C. M. 

Least Common Multiple. 

Lea., or lea. 

League. 

Leg. 

Legato (L., smoothly). 

Leg.,orLegisLegislature; legislative. 

Leip. 

Leipzig, or Leipsic. 

Lev. 

Leviticus. 

Lex. 

Lexicon. 

L. I. 

Long Island; Light Infantry. 

Li or L 

Lithium. 

Lib., or lib. 

Liber (L., book). 

Lieut., or Lt. 

Lieutenant. 

Linn. 

Linnaeus. 

Lit. 

Literature. 

Long., or long. Longitude. 

Loq. 

Loquitur (L., he, or she, speaks). 

L. S. D., £ s. 

d., or 1. s. d. Libra, Solidi, Denarii, 
Pounds, Shillings, Pence. 

Lu. 

Lutecium. 

M 

m. 

Male; manual; married; mascu¬ 
line; measure; medicine; medi¬ 
um; meridian; meter; middle; 
mile; mill; minute; month; 
moon; morning; mountain. 

M. Agr. 

Master of Agriculture. 

Manit. 

Manitoba. 

M. 

Majesty; Manitoba; Marshal; 
Marquis; Master; Member; 
Militia; Monday; Monsieur. 

M. A. 

Military Academy; Master of ArtJ. 

Maj. 

Major. 

Mar. 

March; maritime. 

Mass. 

Massachusetts. 

Math. 

Mathematics. 

Matt. 

Matthew. 

M. C. 

Member of Congress. 

M. D. 

Medicina Doctor (L., Doctor of 
Medicine). 

Md. 

Maryland. 

Mdlle. 

Mademoiselle. 

M. E. 

Methodist Episcopal; Military; 

mining, or Mechanical Engineer. 
Measure. 

Meas. 

Mem. 

Memorandum; memento; memoir; 
memorial. 

Messrs. 

Messieurs; Gentlemen. 

Mg 

Magnesium. 

Mg. 

Milligram. 

Mich. 

Michigan. 

Min. 

Minute. 

Minn. 

Minnesota. 

Miss. 

Mississippi. 

ml. 

Milliliter. 

Mile. 

Mademoiselle 

mm. 

Millimeter. 

Mme. 

Madame. 

Mn. 

Manganese. 


Mo. 

Missouri; molybdenum. 

Mon., or Mond. Monday. 

Mons. 

Monsieur, er Sir. 

Mont. 

Montana. 

Mos., or mos. Months. 

M. P. 

Member of Parliament. 

M. P. C. 

Member of Parliament, Canada. 

Mr. 

Master or Mister. 

Mrs. 

Mistress (as an abbreviation pro¬ 
nounced missis). 

M. S. 

Master of Science. 

MS 

Manuscript. 

Mt. 

Mount, or Mountain. 

Mts. 

Mountains. 

Mus. 

Music; musical; museum. 

N 

N. 

Nitrogen. 

n. 

Natus (L., born); nephew; neuter; 
new; nominative; note; noun; 
number. 

N. 

Nationalist; Navy; Noon; Norse; 
North; Northern; nail. 

N. A. 

North America. 

Na. 

Natrium (L., Sodium). 

N. A. S. 

National Academy of Sciences. 

Nb 

Niobium. 

N. B. 

New Brunswick; North Britain; 
Nota bene (L., note well, or take 
notice). 

N. C. 

North Carolina. 

N. D. 

No date; North Dakota. 

N. Dak. 

North Dakota. 

N. E. 

Northeast; New England. 

nem. con. 

Nemine contradicente (L., no one 
contradicting; unanimously). 

Neth. 

Netherlands. 

Neut., or neut. Neuter. 

Nev. 

Nevada. 

N. F. 

Newfoundland. 

N. H. 

New Hampshire. 

Ni. 

Nickel. 

N. J. 

New r Jersey. 

North Latitude. N. L., or N. Lat. 

N. M. 

New' Mexico. 

No 

Norium. 

No., or no. 

Numero, number. 

N. 0. 

New Orleans. 

Norn., or nom. Nominative. 

Nor., or Norm. Norman. 

Norw. 

Norway; Norwegian. 

Nov. 

November. 

N. P. 

Notary Public. 

N. S. 

Nova Scotia; new series; not speci¬ 
fied. 

Nux vom. 

Nux vomica. 

N. W. 

Northwest. 

N. W. T. 

Northwest Territory. 

N. Y. 

New York. 

N.Z. 

New Zealand, 

0 

O. 

Ohio; oxygen; old. 

Ob., or ob. 

Obiit (L., died). 

Obj., or obj. 

Objective; objection. 

Obt., or Obdt. Obedient. 


ABBREVIATIONS 


Oct. 

O. F. 

O. K. 

Ont. 

Op. 

Ore. 

Ornith. 

Os. 

Oxf. 

Oz., or oz. 


October. 

Odd Fellows. 

All correct. 

Ontario. 

Opposite; opus; opera. 
Oregon. 

Ornithology. 

Osmium. 

Oxford. 

Ounce; ounces. 

P 


/ 


P Phosphorus. 

P- Page; part; participle; past; pen¬ 

ny; piano (L., softly) ; pint; 
pipe. 

Pa. Pennsylvania. 

p. a. Participial adjective. 

Par. Paragraph. 

Pari. Parliament; Parliamentary. 

Part., or part. Participle. 

Pass., or pass. Passive. 

Pb Plumbum (L., lead). 

P. C. Privy Council (or Councilor). 

Pd. Paid; Palladium. 

P. E. Protestant Episcopal. 

P. E. I. Prince Edward Island. 

Pent. Pentecost. 

Per an., or per an. Per annum; by the year. 
Per cent, or pr. ct. Per centum (L., by the hun¬ 
dred). 

Perf., or perf. Perfect. 

Pg. Portuguese. 

Ph. B. Philosophic Baccalaureus (L., 

Bachelor of Philosophy). 

Ph. G. Graduate in Pharmacy. 

Phil., or Phila. Philadelphia. 

P. I. Philippine Islands. 

Pinx., or pinx. Pinxit (L., he or she painted it). 
Pk., or Pks. Peck; pecks. 

Pkgs. Packages. 

Plff. Plaintiff. 

Plur., or plur. Plural. 

P. M. Postmaster; Past Master; Past 

Midshipman; Post Meridiem (L., 
afternoon). 

P. M. G. Postmaster-general. 

P. O. Post Office; Province of Ontario. 

P. O. D. Post Office Department; Pay on De¬ 

livery. 

P. O. O. Post Office Order. 

Pop., or pop. Population. 

Port. Portugal; Portuguese. 

Pos., or pos. Positive; possessive. 

pp. Pages. 

p. p. Past participle. 

P. P. C. Pour prendre conge (Fr. } to take 

leave). 

p. pr. Present participle. 

P. Q. Previous question; Province of 

Quebec. 

Pr. Priest; Prince. 

Pr., or pr. Preposition; pronoun; price; pres¬ 

ent. 

P. R. Porto Rico. 

Prep., or prep. Preposition. 


Pres. President. 

Pres., or pres. Present. 

Prin. Principal. 

Prof. Professor. 

Pron., or pron. Pronoun. 

Pros. Prosody. 

Prot. Protestant. 

Pro., or pro tern. Pro tempore (L., temporarily). 
Prov. Proverbs; province. 

Prox., or prox. Proximo (L., next; of the next 
month). 

Prus. Prussia; Prussian. 

P. S. Privy Seal; passenger steamer; 

post scriptum (L., postscript). 
Ps., or Psa. Psalm, Psalms. 

Pt Platinum. 

Pt., or pt. Pint; part; payment; point; port. 

Pub. Doc. Public Documents. 

Pwt., or pwt. Pennyweight. 

Incognito, Unknown. 


Q 


Q. 


Q., or Qu. 
Q. B. 

Q. C. 

Q. E. D. 

Ql. 

Q. M. G. 
Qr., or qr. 

Q. S., or q. s 

Qt., or qt. 

Qu. 

Ques. 

Q. V., or q. v. 


Quadrans (L., a farthing); quart; 
quasi; queen; query; question; 
quintal; quire; Quebec (prov¬ 
ince). 

Quintus. 

Queen’s Bench. 

Queen’s Counsel; Queen’s College. 

Quod erat demonstrandum (Which 
was to be demonstrated). 

Quintal. 

Quartermaster General. 

Quarter (28 pounds) ; quire. 

Quarter section; Quantum sufficit 
(L., a sufficient quantity). 

Quart; quantity. 

Queen; Question. 

Question. 

Quod vide (L., which see). 


R. 


Ra 
R. A. 

Rad., or rad. 
Rb. 

R. C. 

Rec’d. 

Rec. Sec. 
Rect. 

Ref. 

Regt. 

Rep. 

Rev. 

Rev. 


R 

Railroad; railway; rare; received; 
rector; Regina (L., queen); re¬ 
sides; retired; rex (L., king); 
right; river; rises; road; rod; 
rood. 

Rabbi; Radical; Reamur; Repub¬ 
lican; response (Church Service 
Books) ; royal. 

Radium. 

Royal Academy; Rear Admiral; 
Royal Arch. 

Radix; root; radical. 

Rubidium. 

Roman Catholic Church. 

Received. 

Recording Secretary. 

Rector; receipt. 

Reformed; reformer; Reformation; 
reference. 

Regiment. 

Representative; republic; report; 
repeat; reporter. 

Revelation; revolution; review; 
revenue; revise. 

Reverend. 


ABBREVIATIONS 


Rev. Ver. 
Rh 
R. I. 

Rich. 

R. I. P. 

Riv., or riv. 
Robt. 

R. R. 

Rs. 

R. S. V. P. 

Rt. Hon. 

Rt. Rev. 

Ru. 

Russ. 

R. V. 

Ry. 


Revised Version. 

Rhodium. 

Rhode Island. 

Richard. 

Requiescat in pace (L., may he [or 
she] rest in peace). 

River. 

Robert. 

Railroad. 

Rupees. 

Repondez s’il vous plait (Fr., an¬ 
swer). 

Right Honorable. 

Right Reverend. 

Ruthenium; runic. 

Russia; Russian. 

Revised Version. 

Railway. 


South Africa; 


S Sulphur. 

S., or s. Sign; south; Saint; Sunday; Sat¬ 

urday; Signor; Saxon; scribe; 
Sextus; second; shilling; sun; 
sets; see; solo; stem; section; 
series; singular; son; succeeded. 

S., or Sab. Sabbath. 

S. A. South America; 

South Australia. 

Sas. Saskatchewan. 

Sat. Saturday. 

Sax.< Saxon; Saxony. 

Sb Stibium (L., antimony). 

S'. C. South Carolina; Supreme Court, 

s. caps., s. c. Small capitals. 

Sc., or sc. Scilicet (L., namely). 

Sc. Scandium. 

Sc., or Sculp. Sculpsit (L., he, or she, carved it). 
Scand. Scandinavian. 

Sch. Scholium; schooner. 

Scot. Scotland; Scotch; Scottish. 

Scr., orscr. Scruple. 

Script. Scripture; Scriptural. 

S. Dak.,or S. D. South Dakota. 

S. E. Southeast. 

Se Selenium. 

Sec. Secretary. 

Sec., or sec. Second; section, 

sec. Secant. 

Sec. Leg. Secretary of Legation. 

Sect., or sect. Section. 

Sen. Senate; Senator; Senior. 

Sept. September, Septuagint. 

Seq., orseq. Sequentes, or sequentia (L., the fol¬ 

lowing; the next). 

Serg. Sergeant. 

Sh., sh., S'., or s. Shilling. 

Si Silicium; Silicon. 

S-I. . Sandwich Islands; Staten Island. 
Sing., or sing. Singular. 

S. J. Society of Jesus. 

Skr. Sanskrit. 

S. Lat., or S. L. South Latitude. 

Slav. Slavonic; Slavonian; Slavic. 

S'n Stannum (L., tin). 


S. O., or s. o. Seller’s option. 

Sol. Solomon; solution. 

Sov. Sovereign. 

Sp. Spain; Spanish; Spirit. 

S. P. Sine prole (L., without issue, child¬ 

less). 

Sp. gr. Specific gravity. 

S. P. Q. R. Small profits, quick returns, 
sq., sqq. Sequens, Sequentes (L., and the fol¬ 

lowing). 

Sq., or sq. Square. 

Sq. ft., or sq. ft. Square foot, or feet. 

Sq. in., or sq. in. Square inch, or inches. 

Sq. m., or sq. m. Square mile, or miles. 

Sq. r., or sq. r. Square rod, or rods. 

Sq. yds. or sq. yds. Square yard, or yards. 

Sr. Sir, or Senior; strontium. 

SS., or ss. Scilicet, (L., namely); Semis 

(L., half). 

St. Saint; street; stone; strait; Stet 

(L., Let it stand). 

S. T. D. Doctor of Sacred Theology. 

Stat. Statute; statutes; statuary. 

Ster., or Stg. Sterling. 

Subj., or subj. Subjunctive. 

Subst.,or subst. Substantive; substitute. 

Suff., or suff. Suffix. 

Sun., or Sund. Sunday. 

Sup. Superior; supplement; superfine; 

superlative. 

Supt. Superintendent. 

Surg. Surgeon; surgery. 

Surv. Surveying; surveyor. 

S. W. Southwest. 

Sw. Swedish; Sweden. 

Swit., or Switz. Switzerland. 

Syn., or syn. Synonym. 

Synop. Synopsis. 

T 

T. , or t. Tenor; Titus; Tullius; Tuesday; 

town; township; territory; ton; 

tun; Testament. 

Ta. Tantalum. 

Tan., or tan. Tangent. 


Te 
Tel. 
Tenn. 
Ter. 
Teut. 
Tex. 
Th. 


Tellurium. 

Telegram; telegraph; telephone. 
Tennessee. 

Territory. 

Teutonic. 

Texas. 

Thursday; Thomas; Thorium. 


Theor., or theor. Theorem. 

Thess. Thessalonians. 

Thos. Thomas. 

Thurs. Thursday. 

Ti Titanium. 

Tim. Timothy. 

Tit. Titus; title. 

Tl Thallium. 

Topog. Topography; topographical. 

Tp. Township. 

Tr. Translation; translator; transpose; 

treasurer; trustee; terbium. 

Trig. Trigonometry; trigonometrical. 

Trin. Trinity. 


ABELARD 


Tu 

Thulium. 

Tu., orTues. Tuesday. 

Typog. 

Typography; typographical. 

u 

U 

Uranium. 

U. K. 

United Kingdom. 

Ult., or ult. 

Ultimo, last; of the last month. 

Unit. 

Unitarian. 

Univ. 

University. 

U. S. 

United States. 

U. S. A. 

United States of America; United 
States Army. 

U. S. M. 

United States Mail; United States 
Marine. 

U. S. N. 

United States Navy. 

Ut. 

Utah. 

Ux. 

Uxor, wife. 

V 

V 

Vanadium. 

V., or v. 

Verb; verse; village; vocative; 
volume; violin; vide (L., see). 

Va. 

Virginia. 

Vat. 

Vatican. 

V. c. 

Vice Chancellor; Vice Chairman; 
Victoria Cross. 

Ven. 

Venerable. 

v. i. 

Verb intransitive. 

Vice Pres. 

Vice President. 

Vid., or vid. 

Vide (L., see). 

Viz., or viz. 

Videlicet (L., namely, to wit). 

Vol., or vol. 

Volume. 

V.P. 

Vice President. 

V. R. 

Victoria Regina; Queen Victoria. 

V. Rev. 

Very Reverend. 

Vs., or vs. 

V. S. 

Versus, against. 

Veterinary Surgeon. 

Vt 

Vermont. 

w 

W. 

West; William; Wednesday; 
Welsh; Warden; Wolframium, 
(Tungsten). 

W. A. 

West Africa; West Australia. 

Wash. 

Washington. 

Women’s Christian Temperance 
Union. 

W. C. T. U. 

Wed. 

Wednesday. 

Westm. 

Westminster. 

wf., or w.f. 

Wrong font. 

Wk., or wk. 

Week. 

W. I. 

West India; West Indies. 

Wis. 

Wisconsin. 

Wm. 

William. 

Wt., or wt. 

Weight. 

W. Va. 

West Virginia. 

Wyo. 

Wyoming. 

X 

X 

Xenon. 

Xper., or Xr. Christopher. 

Y 

Y 

Yttrium. 

Y., or Yr. 

Year. 

Yb., or yb. 

Yearbook. 

Yd., or yd. 

Yard; (Yds.) yards. 

Young Men’s Christian Association. 

Y. M. C. A. 


Y. P. S. C. E. Young People’s Society Christian 
Endeavor. 

Y. W. C. A. Young Women’s Christian Associa¬ 
tion. 

Z 

Zn Zinc. 

Zool. Zoology; zoological. 

Zr Zirconium. 

Abelard, ab'e-lard (1079-1142), an 
eminent French philosopher—the lover of 
Heloise. He was born near Nantes. He 
gave his share of his father’s property to 
his younger brothers, and devoted himself 
to a life of scholarship. He went to Par¬ 
is for an education. This w r as before the 
day of printing. Manuscripts were writ¬ 
ten in Latin; the lecturers spoke Latin; 
the students conversed, not in French, but 
in Latin. 

Pierre was Abelard’s name at home, but 
his fellow students gave him a Latin nick¬ 
name meaning “Bacon-licker.” Young 
Pierre changed the nickname slightly to 
“Habelardus,” meaning “Bacon-haver,” 
whence the name Abelard, by which he is 
known. Abelard was a remarkable student. 
He was particularly fond of logic and dis¬ 
putation. He became a favorite of the 
leading professor, but argued with him so 
persistently as to turn friendship into en¬ 
mity. Abelard had fluency and elegance 
of speech. He became noted as the great¬ 
est speaker and teacher of his day. 

In the history of philosophy, he is con¬ 
sidered one of the “school men,” a name 
given to the scholars of the Middle Ages. 
The doctrines of Abelard were of intense 
interest to the thinking young men of his 
day. He emphasized the duty of obeying 
one’s conscience. He defined sin, not mere¬ 
ly as a departure from what is good in 
itself, but as doing something which the 
doer himself felt to be wrong. As a deduc¬ 
tion from this position, he claimed that a 
person might commit an act, wrong in 
itself, but not a sin so far as the doer is 
concerned. It follows from this doctrine 
that if a person thinks it wrong to commit 
an act, he is guilty in doing it, even though 
the act in itself be not w T rong. 

Assuming that God is all powerful and 
all wise,, and that his acts are to be unques¬ 
tioned, Abelard answered the query of 
whether God can do more than he really 


ABERDEEN 


does do, by saying that, if only the divine 
power is to be taken into consideration, 
God can do more than he does, but that, 
if the divine wisdom be considered, God 
cannot do more than he now does. 

As to knowledge, Abelard declared that 
it is our duty to investigate, and that prop¬ 
er doubt is the open door to investigation. 
In matters of faith, this eminent teacher 
laid down the principle that reason must 
be the basis of faith, for without reason 
faith cannot be sure of its truth. In this 
latter doctrine, in particular, Abelard 
came into conflict with the church, which 
very naturally insisted that the teachings 
of the church were authoritative and must 
not be inquired into. He was driven out 
of several positions. The story of his flee¬ 
ing into the wilderness, followed by crowds 
of loyal students desirous of hearing his 
lectures, is one of thrilling interest. His 
doctrines were condemned by church coun¬ 
cils. To escape excommunication, he was 
obliged to recant and to burn his works in 
public. 

Abelard was a profound student of phi¬ 
losophy and theology, the learned subjects 
of his time. He is to be regarded as an 
early exponent of independence of thought. 
He was the most eminent thinker of his 
day. The course of Abelard’s life never 
ran smoothly. At the age of forty he 
ran away with Heloise, his beautiful pupil, 
the niece of Canon Fulbert. They were 
united by a secret marriage which Heloise 
afterward denied from a fear of obstruct¬ 
ing Abelard’s progress in the church, no 
married man being permitted to enter the 
priesthood. Heloise’s relatives took a bru¬ 
tal revenge by breaking into Abelard’s 
apartments and mutilating him in a man¬ 
ner that made him ineligible for high 
place in the church. Abelard entered a 
monastery in deep humiliation. Heloise 
became a nun. Later Abelard founded a 
chapel and hermitage, called Paraclete, and 
when he became an abbot, he gave the 
hermitage to Heloise and her sisterhood 
for a dwelling. On Abelard’s death, his 
body was delivered to Heloise who buried 
him at Paraclete. For twenty years she 
watched his grave and when she died she 
Was buried beside him. In 1817 the re¬ 


mains of Abelard and Heloise were re¬ 
moved to the cemetery of Pere Lachaise 
at Paris, and were buried in the same 
sepulcher. A fine sarcophagus with the re¬ 
cumbent figures of the lovers represented 
on the cover is surmounted by a Gothic 
canopy. Some of the stones of this monu¬ 
ment were brought from the buildings of 
Paraclete. There is never a lack of fresh 
wreaths and bouquets of flowers, left by 
strolling lovers, who regard the tomb of 
Abelard and Heloise as the shrine of dis¬ 
appointed love. 

See Pere Lachaise; Scholasticism. 

Ab'erdeen,a flourishing city of north¬ 
eastern South Dakota, located in the fertile 
valley of the James River midway between 
the eastern boundary of the state and the. 
Missouri. It is the most important railway 
center in this section of the state and has 
developed a considerable wholesale trade. 
The business district is well paved and 
there are many fine business blocks. Arte¬ 
sian wells furnish an abundant water sup¬ 
ply. Manufactories are springing up, 
among them being clothing, harness and 
saddle, gasoline engine and numerous lesser 
establishments. Here is located the North¬ 
ern Normal and Industrial School, and 
the town has a particularly fine high 
school building. 

The population (1920) was 14,537. 

Aberdeen, Wash., is well situated at 
the head of Grays Harbor, at the junction 
of the Chehalis and Wishkah rivers, 15 
miles from the Pacific Ocean. In the 
heart of the northwestern lumber industry, 
it has about 20 lumber and shingle mills, 
besides factories, and salmon and clam can¬ 
neries. It is one of the largest lumber 
shipping cities in the United States. Its 
population in 1920 was 15,337. 

Ab'erdeen, the chief seaport of north¬ 
ern Scotland. It is situated near the 
mouth of the river Dee, and on the Ger¬ 
man Ocean, sixty odd miles northwest of 
Edinburgh. Population, 158,969. The 
city is of local importance in the shipping 
of cloth, both woolen and linen, cotton 
yarn, paper, fish, grain, and cattle. It 
is the fourth port of Scotland, and is 
noted as a center of the granite industry. 


ABERNETHY—ABRAHAM 


Aberdeen granite takes a fine polish. An 
ancient seat of learning, dating from 1494, 
one of four Scottish universities, is located 
at Aberdeen. It has seventy-nine profes¬ 
sors, divided into four faculties,—arts, di¬ 
vinity, law, and medicine. There are about 
a thousand students. An art gallery, an 
art school, a fine old cathedral, and sixty 
churches are in keeping with the reputation 
of the city for learning and culture. The 
University sends a member to Parliament. 
Aberdeen is also one of the ancient cen¬ 
ters of golf playing. The golf links ex¬ 
tend along the seashore for. some distance, 
and are noted in the. history of the game. 
See Scotland. 

Ab'ernethy, John (1764-1831), an em¬ 
inent English surgeon. A native of Lon¬ 
don. Surgeon of St. Bartholomew’s hos¬ 
pital. He was a skillful operator and be¬ 
came so famous for lectures on anatomy 
and surgery that the authorities found it 
necessary to build him a large lecture room. 
He was a brilliant, witty speaker, kind- 
hearted but blunt. A characteristic anec¬ 
dote runs to the effect that he gave a rich 
patient a sure cure for the gout: “Live 
on sixpence a day and earn it.” 

Aberra'tion. This is a term used in 
physics for the fact that lenses and curved 
mirrors are unable to form true, flat im¬ 
ages, or images devoid of color. It is 
“spherical aberration” when the reflected 
rays from the curved surface do not focus 
at a point, as is seen on the surface of a 
pail or cup of milk when illuminated 
obliquely by a lamp or candle, giving rise 
to the figure known as “the cow’s foot in 
the milk.” 

The fact that the different colors into 
which white light is separated by a lens 
do not focus at the same point, gives rise 
to rainbow-hued fringes about the image. 
This is called chromatic aberration, a de¬ 
fect largely overcome by combining two 
kinds of glass in the lens which is then 
known as achromatic. 

In a somewhat different sense, the word 
aberration is used as describing the cause 
of the apparent displacement of a star or 
other celestial body from its place in the 
sky. 

Abilene, Tex., 150 miles west of Fort 


Worth, is the county seat of Taylor County. 
It is in the center of a cotton and fruit 
growing district, and these two products 
are the principal articles of trade. It has 
cotton gins, cotton oil mills and a flour 
mill. Situated here are Simmons College, 
McMurray College, Abilene Christian Col¬ 
lege and a State Epileptic Colony. Popu¬ 
lation, in 1920, 10,274. 

Abolitionists, in American history, a 
name applied to those who urged the im¬ 
mediate and utter abolition of slavery. 
The term dates from the founding, in 1831. 
by William Lloyd Garrison, of a paper 
called The Liberator. The abolitionists 
were confined chiefly to the North. They 
were bitter in their denunciation of the 
fugitive slave law, and promoted the “un¬ 
derground railroad,” through whose agen¬ 
cy many slaves found their way to free¬ 
dom. The abolitionists were at no time 
a political party or organization. Wendell 
Phillips and Charles Sumner were con¬ 
spicuous in the movement. John Brown’s 
raid at Harper’s Ferry was regarded as 
the logical outcome of the methods ad¬ 
vocated by the abolitionists. See Taney; 
Underground Railroad; Brown; Gar¬ 
rison; Phillips; Whittier; Free Soil 
Party. 

Abraham, in Hebrew lore, the father 
of the Israelites and of the Arabian tribes. 
According to Genesis xii, he and his im¬ 
mediate household left home and kindred 
in heathen Mesopotamia and journeyed 
westward to the Holy Land under a divine 
command, coupled with a gracious prom¬ 
ise, “And I will make of thee a great na¬ 
tion, and I will bless thee, and make thy 
name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; 
And I will bless them that bless thee, and 
curse him that curseth thee; and in thee 
shall all families of the earth be blessed.” 
Some Bible critics are pleased to believe 
that Abraham was a military leader at the 
head of a band of nomadic followers, or 
that he was a mythical personage whose 
experience at the oak of Mamre, at He¬ 
bron, and in Egypt, typifies the early wan¬ 
derings of the Semitic race. The release 
of his son Isaac from the altar, and the 
offering of a ram instead, may indeed be 
symbolical of the national change from hu- 


ABRUZZI—ABSINTHE 


I 


man sacrifice to that of animals; but there 
is no reason to suppose that Abraham is 
not in some degree an historical personage, 
around whom more or less legendary ac¬ 
counts have gathered. The Bible story 
certainly loses in the reading by regard¬ 
ing Abraham as other than “an honest, 
peaceable, generous, highminded patri¬ 
arch; a prince, rich, powerful, and hon¬ 
ored, fitted for rule, and exercising power 
with prudence.” Historians place the mi¬ 
gration of Abraham, founder of the He¬ 
brew race, at about 2000 B. C. 

The entire Biblical narrative, to the day 
when Abraham bought the cave of Mach- 
pelah and buried Sarah there, fits in ad¬ 
mirably with what we know of Arabic 
life and manners, and could be identified 
with southwestern Asia were all mention of 
place omitted. At all events the Hebrews 
and Arabs are closely related in language, 
literary ideals, features, and in many re¬ 
spects intellectually. Whether they are de¬ 
scended from Isaac and Ishmael and the 
six other sons of Abraham, or whether the 
Abraham of Scripture refers to an indi¬ 
vidual ancestor or to a parent people that 
migrated westward, the Bible story loses 
none of its interest or instructiveness. 

See Jews. 

Abruzzi. See Arctic Regions. 

Absalom, the third son of David, King 
of Israel. The story of Absalom is in¬ 
teresting. His beauty; the affront to his 
sister; the slaying of his brother; his flight,, 
exile, and recall; his burning the standing 
grain of his cousin Joab; Joab’s inter¬ 
cession for him at court; his popular ways; 
his rebellion and foolish advisers; the ad¬ 
verse battle in the wood of Ephraim; his 
tragic death in the boughs of an old oak 
at Joab’s hand; his burial beneath a great 
heap of stones, and David’s grief for a fa¬ 
vorite though disobedient son, “are they 
not set forth” in II Samuel, beginning at 
the thirteenth chapter and following? A 
rock-hewn sepulcher, with an attic of ma¬ 
sonry adorned with Ionic columns and a 
Doric frieze, is pointed out at Jerusalem 
as “Absalom’s Tomb.” In one of his 
celebrated satires John Dryden pictures 
Monmouth as Absalom—the type of un- 
dutiful sons, a monster of ingratitude. 


Absentee Landlord, a term applied to 
land owners who live abroad. The term 
was originally applied to the owners of 
Irish estates, who lived customarily in Lon¬ 
don or elsewhere, managing their property 
through resident agents. Many Irish 
riots may be traced to the hard dealings 
of agents under instructions to collect rents 
to be expended, as the peasantry thought, 
and no doubt justly, in more or less riot¬ 
ous living. The evil of absenteeism has 
been remedied in Ireland by an act au¬ 
thorizing tenants of lands to purchase their 
holdings at a fair value, the money for 
that purpose being loaned them, on the 
land as security, by the government. A 
somewhat similar state of absenteeism ex 
isted in Hungary after its union with Aus¬ 
tria.; but of late the Hungarian nobles 
have shown more pride in residing amongst 
their own people. In America the term 
is used to refer to wealthy Americans who 
prefer to live abroad on the income derived 
from their American property. See Ire¬ 
land. 

Ab'sinthe, an alcoholic beverage. It is 
prepared from alcohol by the addition of 
oil of wormwood and other aromatic oils, 
particularly the oil of anise. Its charac¬ 
teristic constitutent, however, is the some¬ 
what poisonous oil of wormwood, to which 
the deleterious properties of the cordial 
are attributable. The green color of the 
liquor, due in part to the oil of worm¬ 
wood, is heightened by the addition of the 
juice of spinach, nettles, or parsley. Most 
samples of absinthe also contain sugar. 
On the addition of water the essential oils 
are thrown out of solution and the 
liquid becomes turbid. The cordial is tak¬ 
en by adding a small portion to a glass 
of water. It is consumed largely in France, 
but its use has extended to England and 
America. Absinthe is considered a perni¬ 
cious beverage. It is believed to under¬ 
mine the system, to bring on the alcohol 
habit, and to produce dementia more rap¬ 
idly and certainly than any other liquor 
known. Its use increased rapidly. The 
sales in France for 1905 amounted to 
5,557,529 gallons. In 1915, the govern¬ 
ment prohibited its use in the country. Its 
use had previously been forbidden to of- 


ABSORPTION—ABYSSINIA 


fkers of the army and navy, and its impor¬ 
tation into the United States has been for¬ 
bidden since Oct. 1 , 1912. See Artemisia. 

Absorp'tion, is a name given to the 
process by which living organisms take up 
the soluble, nutritive materials needed for 
their growth. The physical and chemical 
laws governing the passage of liquids 
through the membranous cell walls are 
fairly well understood, but as to how the 
protoplasm of the cell regulates this flow is 
still largely a mystery. Our ordinary plants 
give off by evaporation large quantities of 
water, and this loss must be balanced by a 
constant absorption through which nour¬ 
ishment is obtained. The absorption of 
the prepared food materials by the walls 
of the alimentary canal, chiefly in the 
small intestine, is another example. The 
lymphatics and lacteals are organs of ab¬ 
sorption. 

Abstract of Title, a document setting 
forth in an orderly manner the essential 
facts of all patents, deeds, mortgages, re¬ 
leases, or other transactions affecting the 
title to a particular tract of land. In 
America a complete abstract states how the 
original owner came into possession, and 
describes all transfers to the present time. 
It should also show what taxes, if any, 
remain unpaid, and whether any judgments 
or other obligations exist which render 
the present owner unable to give a clear 
title. Ordinarily the seller of a tract of 
land is expected to furnish such an abstract 
for the buyer or his attorney to inspect, 
but he is under no legal obligation to do 
so. Many English abstracts begin with 
Doomsday Book. In Louisiana an ab¬ 
stract is likely to begin with some Spanish 
grant two centuries old. In the states of 
the Middle West the first entry is likely 
to cite a government patent conveying a 
homestead, preemption quarter, tree claim, 
or scrip claim to the original settler. 

Abyssinia, ab'is-sin-i-a, a country of 
Africa. The name is Arabic, signifying 
mixture, and has reference to the mixed 
population. Abyssinia occupies a rugged, 
inland plateau, situated in the interior of 
the triangle formed by the Nile, the Red 
Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Abyssinia has 
no seacoast. The general surface is granit- 
\-2 


ic, and lies about 8,000 feet above the sea, 
with huge masses of volcanic rock rising 
to an altitude of 15,000 feet. The total 
area, including dependencies, is over 
200,000 square miles—about twice that of 
Nevada. The population is estimated at 
nine or ten millions. Certain dependent 
tribes belong to the black race; but the 
people of Abyssinia proper are a mixture 
of tribes allied to the swarthy Arabs and 
Egyptians. They are rude, but they are 
whites, not negroes. Abyssinian history in 
Africa is, in a way, similar to that of 
Switzerland in Europe. Abyssinia resisted 
Egyptian aggression of old. It was never 
subjugated by the Romans or by the Mos¬ 
lems. European nations have taken posses¬ 
sion of the valley of the Nile on the west, 
and of the seacoast on the east; but Ab¬ 
yssinia of the mountains has fought for 
its freedom, and is yet independent under 
a native ruler. The monarch is styled by 
the native’s King of Kings Menelik II was 
crowned in 1889. On his death in 1913, 
Lidji Jessu, his grandson, became King. 
He was succeeded by Menelik’s daughter, 
Waizern Zauditu (Empress), in 1917. 

Lidji Jessu, however, reigned only three 
years; he was deposed by public procla¬ 
mation on September 27, 1916, and Wai- 
zeru Zauditu, daughter of Jessu’s prede¬ 
cessor, Menelik, was nominated Empress. 
She was crowned at Addis Abbaba on 
February 11, 1917. Upon the Empress’ 
accession, Ras Taffari was proclaimed heir 
to the throne, and he wields actual power 
to a great extent. 

The political institutions of Abyssinia 
are feudal in character, analogous to those 
of mediaeval Europe, and slavery is a well 
established institution. Cabinet govern¬ 
ment was introduced in 1919, but swiftly 
fell into disuse. The army numbers 
about 100,000, and is armed with modern 
rifles. 

The people are not disposed to raise 
crops by tilling the soil. They do raise 
cotton, sugar cane, date palms, and grapes, 
wheat, barley, millet, hops, coffee, and 
tobacco in small quantities, but they pre¬ 
fer grazing. Cattle, sheep, goats, small 
horses, mules, and donkeys are reared. 

There are several towns of 5,000 or 


ACACIA—ACADEMY 


more population. Telephone lines extend 
into the interior. A railroad from the 
coast has been extended 193 miles into the 
southeastern part of Abyssinia, but for the 
most part transportation is carried on by 
trains of mules, packhorses, donkeys, and 
camels, over mere mountain trails. The 
natives are eager to buy cotton and woolen 
cloth. Turkey red is a favorite color. 
American merchants sell them $2,000,000 
worth of gray cotton shirting a year. 
Soap, incense, thread, candles, tinware, 
umbrellas, beads, looking glasses, razors, 
knives and swords, iron and brass wire, 
guns and ammunition are in demand. 
The natives have hides, coffee, civet, ivory, 
beeswax, gums, ostrich feathers, and gold 
to sell. Trade is carried on chiefly with 
the British port of Aden. 

There is a w T ide range of climate and 
vegetation. A belt near the seacoast is 
torrid, and is characterized by the indigo, 
date palm, banana, and ebony trees of the 
tropics. The slopes of the mountains pro¬ 
duce the oranges, lemons, olives and the 
grapes, grains, grasses, and garden vege¬ 
tables of cooler climes. The elevated 
mountain regions are given over to pastur¬ 
age, with here and there patches of oats 
and barley. The meadows and many of 
the plants found in the upper regions of 
Abyssinia remind the traveler of similar 
scenes in the Alps. In the winter the 
snow accumulates in the mountains and 
goes off in the spring with heavy rains, 
swelling the Blue Nile and the Atbara, 
two torrents that flow westward into the 
Nile and produce its annual inundation. 

See Aden ; Africa. 

Acacia, a-ka'sha, a genus of shrubs 
and trees belonging to the pea family. 
There are between four and five hundred 
species. The acacia is a native of every 
continent except Europe; but it has been 
introduced into England and southern Eu¬ 
rope from Africa and from Australia. The 
North American locust is closely related 
to the acacias, as are also the mimosae, or 
sensitive plants, the lupines, sennas, and 
laburnums, as well as all the varieties in¬ 
cluded under the general name legumi- 
nosae, or pod-bearing plants. In Some 
species the twice-pinnate leaves are reduced 


to mere rudiments, and the leaf stalk .is 
broad and flat, with one edge toward the 
sun. Several kinds yield the gum arabic 
and gum Senegal of commerce. The bark 
and pods of one or more kinds are used 
for tanning leather. The seeds of one 
species are used for soap. Catechu, an as¬ 
tringent extract much used by the tanner, 
and in medicine as a remedy for diarrhoea 
and dysentery, is obtained from a species 
found in India. Florists list over fifty 
acacias as desirable conservatory plants. 
Some kinds yield valuable and lasting lum¬ 
ber. One species is thought to be the 
shittim-wood of the Bible. 

Academy, a body of persons voluntarily 
associated to confer on questions of art, 
science, or literature. The term originated 
in connection with the school of Plato and 
his disciples, who walked and talked and 
learned and taught in the garden of Acade- 
mus in Athens. In the sense of a school, 
academy is still used, especially in New 
England, for a grade of schools, frequent¬ 
ly endowed and ably taught, corresponding 
in a general way to the public high school. 
The United States Government maintains 
a military academy at West Point and a 
naval academy at Annapolis. The pre¬ 
paratory department maintained by many 
colleges goes by the name of academy. 
The report of the United States Commis¬ 
sioner of Education for 1907 gives infor¬ 
mation regarding 1,434 academies having 
8,956 instructors and 97,110 students. The 
number of academies seems to be falling 
off about one hundred a year. 

The general use of the term, however, 
is to designate a learned society holding 
meetings for the discussion of important, 
and especially recent, contributions to 
knowledge. The academy, using the word 
with this meaning, dates from the revival 
of learning in the fifteenth century. Over 
20,000 associations now exist with the pur¬ 
pose, and usually the name, of an academy. 
Many, of course, and these are not to be 
despised, are merely local, organized to 
compare fossils, flowers, and birds’ eggs: 
but the number of state, national, and in¬ 
ternational organizations that issue bulle¬ 
tins and proceedings containing additions 
to the world’s knowledge is really large. 


ACADIA—ACANTHUS 


Sometimes they are termed societies, asso¬ 
ciations, or institutions. 

The earliest organization of the sort in 
this country is the American Philosophical 
Society at Philadelphia, founded by Ben¬ 
jamin Franklin and his associates in 1743. 
The American Academy of Boston (1780) 
has issued many costly volumes devoted 
to natural history. Similar work has been 
done by the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
Philadelphia (1814) ; the Lyceum of Nat¬ 
ural History, New York (1818) ; the In¬ 
stitute of Natural History, Albany 
(1824), and many others.- The list of 
historical societies is a long one, and the 
number of societies organic xi to promote 
artistic development is still greater. Of 
American organizations the greatest is the 
Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D. 
C., with a large endowment and the gene¬ 
ral government behind it. The scientific 
societies of Montreal, Rio Janiero, and 
Santiago have published valuable reports. 
Across the Atlantic there is a long array 
of royal, imperial, and national academies, 
institutes, and societies of art, science, and 
literature. Florence, Rome, Milan, Venice, 
Paris, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Berlin, 
Munich, Pesth, Vienna, Prague, Lisbon, 
Madrid, Petrograd, Christiania, Stock¬ 
holm, Copenhagen, Tokio, Madras, and, in 
short, all considerable cities with claim 
to intelligence, possess from one to sev¬ 
eral academies or learned societies under 
one name or another. 

In literature “The Academy” refers es¬ 
pecially to the French Academy founded 
in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu. It consists 
of forty members, each with a salary of 
$300 a year, and three salaried officers. 
The secretary receives $1,200 a year. The 
members are popularly called the “Forty 
Immortals.” They fill vacancies in their 
ranks by ballot. Jealousy at times pre¬ 
vents the selection of the most fitting. 
Among the publications of the Academy, 
the chief in importance is an authoritative 
dictionary of the French language, the 
first edition of which was published in 
1694. 

In art circles “The Academy” refers to 
the Royal Academy of Arts, a British in¬ 
stitution founded in 1768 by George III. 


Sir Joshua Reynolds was the first president. 
The presiding officer is permitted to write 
P. R. A. after his name; forty members 
write R. A., and twenty associates write 
A. R. A. An annual exhibition of meri¬ 
torious paintings, sculpture, and designs is 
held at London. 

Aca'dia, a former French colony in 
North America, now known as New Bruns¬ 
wick and Nova Scotia. To be exact, Aca¬ 
dia was that part of the continent lying 
east of a line drawn north from the mouth 
of the Penobscot to the St. Lawrence. At 
one time it comprised a part of Maine. 
The word is Micmac, signifying plenty. 
During Queen Anne’s War, the province 
was annexed by England. The name was 
changed to Nova Scotia. In a narrower 
sense, the word has been associated with a 
region lying immediately on the Bay of 
Fundy. In 1755, during King George’s 
War, word was sent to the Acadian French 
in this settlement that they must take the 
oath of allegiance to England. Very pos¬ 
sibly the French priests, on whom the 
simple peasantry depended for informa¬ 
tion and guidance, withheld the order. At 
any rate, the Acadians did not comply. 
The British authorities feared that the Aca¬ 
dians might prove a source of strength to 
the French. It was believed also that the 
Acadians encouraged the Micmac Indians 
to side with the French against the British. 
At all events, the region was placed under 
martial law. The innocent and happy Aca¬ 
dians were driven on board English ves¬ 
sels, and were scattered up and down the 
Atlantic coast among the various colonies. 
Families were broken up and never re¬ 
united. Those who escaped to the woods 
were starved into surrender by the utter de¬ 
struction of their homes, crops, and cattle. 
A considerable number of the unhappy 
refugees found their way to Louisiana, 
where their descendants still reside. It is 
here that the story of Evangeline and the 
sufferings of the Acadians, so well told 
by Longfellow, are current traditions. 
See Evangeline; Nova Scotia. 

Acan'thus, a genus of perennial herbs 
native in the countries of the Mediterrane¬ 
an. The acanthus family contains some 1400 
species of herbs and shrubs, chiefly tropi- 


ACCENT—ACCLIMATIZATION 


cal. The name is from the Greek and 
signifies a thorn. It has reference to the 
spines which terminate the lobes of the 
leaves of certain species. The acanthus 
proper includes several species, the chief 
of which are the soft-leaved and the spiny- 
leaved acanthus. These and other species 
are cultivated for borders and window 
plants. The flower stem springs to a 
height of three feet from the center of a 
rosette or cluster of handsome, dark green, 
shining leaves, and bears a spike of large 
monopetalous, irregular white or yellowish 
flowers. The stem, leaves, and roots of 
the plant are mucilaginous. A deep blue 
dye is obtained from a kindred species 
growing in Assam. The acanthus is 
known in British gardens as bear’s 
breech. 

The acanthus leaf is noted in art. The 
leaves that adorn the capital of the Corin¬ 
thian column are the conventionalized foli¬ 
age of the spiny-leaved acanthus known 
to botanists as Acanthus spinosus. The 
acanthus leaf was a favorite design for 
the ornamentation of the cornice and frieze 
not only in Grecian but in Roman, Byzan¬ 
tine, medieval, and Renaissance architec¬ 
ture. The acanthus leaf was employed also 
in decorating vases, drinking cups, plat¬ 
ters, and furniture. An acanthus design 
was adopted for embroidery and other 
needlework and was used by the house 
decorator for walls. 

Ac'cent, in speaking, a special stress or 
pressure of the voice giving prominence 
to a syllable. Emphasis is distinguished 
from accent in that it makes prominent one 
or more words, even an entire sentence. 
The purposes of accent are various; by 
it a noun may be distinguished from a 
verb, as ac'cent, accent'; an adjective from 
a verb, as pre'sent, present'; an adjective 
from a noun, as expert', ex'pert. The in¬ 
fluence of accent in changing the form of 
words is worthy of note. In many in¬ 
stances the unaccented syllable is dropped 
in the course of time. 

All languages are accented, some to a 
greater extent than others. The English 
language is accented very irregularly. This 
makes it difficult for a foreigner to learn 
but adds to the flexibility of the language 


and makes poetry, that is, a variety of 
poetic forms, possible, since rhythm de¬ 
pends upon the recurrence of accented and 
unaccented syllables. At the present time 
the tendency in English is to throw the 
accent tow r ard the beginning of the word, 
as, for example, in per'emptory. If more 
than one syllable of a word is accented, 
one accent is stronger than the others, and 
is called the primary accent. 

The word accent is used also to denote 
the stress given certain notes in music, 
and is applied moreover to the intonation 
peculiar to any language when it is com¬ 
pared with another. We say for instance, 
“He speaks English with an accent,’* 
meaning that the intonation peculiar to 
the language of some foreigner is notice¬ 
able when he speaks English. 

Acclimatiza'tion, a change in a plant 
or an animal enabling it to live in a new 
locality in a climate for which it was not 
at first fitted. Indian corn furnishes an 
excellent illustration. Seed corn from 
Mexico, for instance, planted in Minnesota 
would not ripen in time to escape fall 
frosts; but by choosing early ears of Mexi¬ 
can corn, and planting a little farther 
north from year to year, and repeating the 
process, an early corn may be developed 
which will ripen on the Canadian line. 
That is to say, corn which changes so that 
it ripens earlier, becomes acclimated. If 
northern seed be planted southward, the 
reverse process takes place. The succes¬ 
sive generations or crops descended from 
early corn seemingly acquire the habit of 
taking more time, and thus become late 
corn again. 

A similar change may be observed in 
certain kinds of willows that grow to be 
trees in temperate climes, but grade off 
into copse wood and finally appear in arc¬ 
tic latitudes as low shrubs a hand’s breadth 
in height. The seed of the tree would not 
produce a successful plant beyond the Arc¬ 
tic Circle; but, by traveling north slowly, 
the descendants of the tree become shrubs 
and adapt themselves to a short, warm 
summer, a cool soil, terrific winds, and a 
long, extremely cold, icebound winter. 
These willows are acclimated. Under arc¬ 
tic conditions the willows are dwarfed in 


ACCORDION—ACETYLENE 


size and rough in exterior, but they thrive, 
and are as thoroughly at home as the arc¬ 
tic fox and the ptarmigan to which they 
afford shelter. 

In the case of animals the process of 
adaptation is much the same. The thin- 
blooded, scanty-haired muskrat of the 
Louisiana bayous would have a hard time 
in the border swamps of Hudson Bay. 
Very likely at first it might fail to rear 
young, or might perish in the deeply froz¬ 
en shallows; but with time a colony of 
these southern muskrats would learn to eat 
northern roots, to choose waters of suit¬ 
able depth, and to build tepees. Their 
blood would thicken, their coats of fur 
would grow denser and longer. They and 
their descendants would become accus¬ 
tomed to new conditions and be prepared 
for them. They would be acclimated. 

People suffer great distress from extreme 
changes of climate. The people of Eng¬ 
land who go to India to occupy govern¬ 
ment positions, or to engage in commercial 
undertakings, suffer far more during the 
first years, and are more subject to pesti¬ 
lence, than is the case after a term of resi¬ 
dence has enabled them to become accli¬ 
mated. Americans are passing through the 
same experience in the Philippines. The 
less abrupt the change of climate, the great-, 
er the probability of acclimatization. An 
inhabitant of Mississippi is more likely to 
get on in the climate of Manila than is 
a man from Wisconsin. Residence on the 
Gulf Coast is a good preparation for resi¬ 
dence at Panama. Contrariwise a Maine 
man or a Christiania sailor is a better 
hand for arctic exploration than a sailor 
enlisted at Genoa or Marseilles. 

For reasons of this sort, migrations of 
people, plants, and animals follow paral¬ 
lels of latitude more freely than lines run¬ 
ning in a north and south direction. Farm¬ 
ers have understood this fact in a gen¬ 
eral way. Seed grains, fruit trees, cotton, 
horses, sheep, goats, and swine are not 
shifted north or south rapidly. A northern 
farmer desires northern grown seeds and 
patronizes a northern nursery when he de¬ 
sires to plant an orchard or a fruit gar¬ 
den ; but by allowing time for acclimati¬ 
zation, the range through which useful 


plants may be cultivated, as, for instance, 
the corn and the apple, has been extended 
wonderfully. 

The term should be distinguished care¬ 
fully from naturalization. The spread of 
rats, mice, rabbits, English sparrows, and 
weeds from Europe and other countries, 
without particular change of habits or 
form, is mere colonization or naturaliza¬ 
tion, not to be confounded with acclimati¬ 
zation. A naturalized plant or animal is 
not only acclimated, but is so much at 
home in the new region that it is able to 
get on and thrive without the help of man. 
It is to all appearances native. 

See Corn. 

Accor'dion, a small musical instru¬ 
ment which is played by being held in both 
hands, the instrument being alternately ex¬ 
tended and compressed. A bellows causes 
the wind to pass over metallic reeds of va¬ 
rious sizes, thus producing the sound. Keys 
are arranged at each end and pressed by the 
fingers. Little skill is required to play 
the accordion, as the chords are deter¬ 
mined by a mechanical device, the keys 
varying the pitch. It has often proved on 
this account a source of amusement to the 
lonely, but its music is hardly pleasing 
to the cultivated ear. When the instru¬ 
ment is mentioned images arise of rough 
lads and buxom lassies dancing to its 
music on the wide barn floor after some 
husking bee or apple-paring party of “ye 
olden time.” 

Acetylene, a colorless gas having a 
faint ethereal odor. It is formed in small 
quantities by direct union of carbon and 
hydrogen in the electric arc. When cal¬ 
cium carbide is dropped into water, violent 
effervescence occurs, the carbide is disin¬ 
tegrated, slaked lime is formed, and acety¬ 
lene passes off as a gas. The gas burns 
in air with a strongly illuminating, some¬ 
what smoky flame, but gives a white light 
in a special form of burner in which a flat 
stream of the gas is burned in a rich sup¬ 
ply of air. When used as an illuminant, 
it is developed in a suitable generator as 
it is needed. It is commonly used for 
lighting railway cars, offices, and shops. As 
prepared from commercial calcium carbide, 
acetylene is more or less impure, and the 


ACETYLENE WELDING 


disagreeable odor and alleged poisonous 
properties are attributable to the impurities. 
The gas is subject to violent explosion 
when mixed, even in small proportion, with 
air and ignited, or when subjected to sud¬ 
den pressure. It may, however, be safely 
handled at ordinary pressures, but when 
contained in cylinders at more than two 
atmospheres pressure it is readily exploded 
by any shock. 

To produce the calcium carbide required 
in the commercial manufacture of acety¬ 
lene, a mixture of pulverized limestone 
and coke is fused in the intense heat of an 
electric furnace. The carbide is a hard, 
grayish, slag-like mass, in which form it is 
placed on the market. There are extensive 
calcium carbide factories at Niagara Falls, 
the electricity required by the furnaces be- 
ing generated by the water power. 

Julius Hortvet. 

Acetylene Welding. The use of an 

acetylene flame for welding or cutting 
metals is a modern addition to the indus¬ 
trial arts and is of great importance. In 
this process the acetylene flame is raised 
to a great heat, approximately 3,500° 
Fahrenheit, by means of oxygen conveyed 
to a burner or torch with a combination 
nozzle. This process is known as oxy- 
acetylene welding or cutting. In many 
shops and factories there is a special plant 
for the production of acetylene gas, which 
is piped to any part of the works as it is 
required. In other cases the acetylene is 
supplied in steel cylinders containing por¬ 
ous materials such as asbestos, curled hair, 
etc., in which the acetylene may be safely 
stored and transported. It cannot safely be 
shipped in bulk, like oxygen and other gases. 

Welding by the oxyacetylene process was 
introduced into the United States from 
France in 1905. It is now used for a 
great variety of repair work, as the appa¬ 
ratus required is simple and compact, so 
that it can readily be carried from place 
to place. Welding done by the acetylene 
flame is one of the processes known as auto¬ 
genous welding, in which the metals to be 
joined are melted at their edges instead of 
being merely softened as in the ordinary 
process of welding where the union of the 
metals is completed by hammering. Iron, 


steel, aluminum, copper, and the various 
kinds of bronze are now welded by the 
oxyacetylene process; and all these metals, 
excepting cast iron, can also be cut suc¬ 
cessfully by the oxyacetylene torch more 
rapidly and conveniently than by the ma¬ 
chine methods formerly used. Cast iron, 
however, cannot be cut by the torch, as the 
free carbon it contains seems to prevent 
the torch flame from penetrating the metal 
to the required degree. 

In the process of welding two pieces of 
metal together, the acetylene gas is first 
lighted at the nozzle of the combination 
burner, and a stream of oxygen is then 
turned into it by opening a second valve, 
and the supply of each gas is regulated so 
as to produce a flame of the highest pos¬ 
sible temperature, at a pressure of from 
3 to 12 pounds per square inch. Before, 
the torch is applied the pieces to be welded 
are scraped and cleaned, so as to remove 
all impurities that would prevent a perfect 
union. The torch is fitted with a nozzle 
suited to the work or material, and this is 
applied in such a manner as to melt the 
edges of the metal and also heat the ad¬ 
jacent parts to prevent subsequent crack¬ 
ing. With the torch in one hand, the 
workman holds in the other a thin rod of 
metal, called a melt stick,” which he holds 
in the flame of the torch and applies to 
the edges to be joined. This as it melts 
supplies a filling material in the space 
between the edges of the weld. 

Oxyacetylene welding is used in auto¬ 
mobile repair shops, in shipyards, and loco¬ 
motive and car repair shops, where it is 
found the quickest and most economical 
method, as it can be done without taking 
engines or other machinery apart. It is 
also used in connecting water pipes and 
gas mains in many cities, and prevents the 
trouble formerly given by the leakage of 
high-pressure pipes and mains with riv¬ 
eted joints. In such cases joints welded 
by this process are not only better but 
cheaper. 

In cutting metals with the oxyacetvlene 
torch, a fine jet of intense heat, similar to 
that used in welding is used, but under 
higher pressure. Metal of considerable 
thickness is quickly cut through with a 


ACHAEAN LEAGUE 


narrow and even cut, the process being 
accompanied by a shower of sparks as the 
metal is burned through. This method is 
now applied to the wrecking of steel 
structures, in scrapping old boilers and 
tanks, etc. 

Acetylene must be used with a suitable 
burner, whether the flame be required for 
illuminating purposes, for welding, or 
cutting metals. The amount of heat gen¬ 
erated in its combustion is due to the high 
percentage of carbon which it contains, 
requiring a very high temperature to make 
the carbon particles burn and become 
luminous. Experienced workmen are es¬ 
sential to success in welding and cutting. 

When acetylene passes into a solution of 
a salt of copper containing ammonia, 
copper acetylide is formed. This reaction 
is used by chemists in testing mixtures for 
the presence of acetylene. 

Achaean (a-ke'an) League, a Greek 
federation, B. C. 280-146. The league orig¬ 
inated in Achaea, the most northerly dis¬ 
trict in the Peloponnesus. It extended 
sixty-five miles along the Gulf of Corinth. 
After the death of Alexander the Grecian 
cities were bones of contention. It was 
uncertain for a time whether Greece 
should be under the control of Syria, of 
Egypt, or of Macedonia. The latter power 
won. The Greek cities were held in sub¬ 
jection by tyrants in the interest of Mace- 
don, or they were held openly by garrisons. 
The Grecian campfires seemed wholly dead, 
when patriotism flamed up in an unex¬ 
pected corner and lighted Greek history 
for a final half century. Hitherto Achaea 
had played a small part in the affairs of 
Greece. At this juncture, however, an old 
Achaean confederacy of cities was revived. 
The cities of Achaea drove out their ty¬ 
rants, one after another, and drew to¬ 
gether. They formed a constitution and 
were joined by other cities until the Mace¬ 
donians had no holdings in the peninsula. 
Athens was liberated from the Macedonian 
yoke and became an ally, though not a 
member, of the league. Argos was set free 
and joined the federation. With the vir¬ 
tual accession of these cities, Greece was 
free from Macedonian control as far north 
as Thermopylae. Sparta stood out because 


the league was unwilling to accord that 
city the right of leadership. 

The Achaean League is mentioned so 
often as a noted example of early federa¬ 
tion, that the main features of the con¬ 
stitution are worthy of examination: 

1. The authority was vested in an assem¬ 

bly of citizens. The assembly was 
not composed of delegates from each 
city, but of all the citizens who chose 
to come. It was really a union mass 
meeting. 

2. To prevent the city having the greatest 

turnout of voters from carrying 
measures, each city was given one vote. 
This feature is somewhat akin to the 
American plan of giving each state 
two votes in the Senate. 

3. The assembly met twice a year for 

three days at a time. 

4. No capital was designated. The assem¬ 

bly met around from place to place. 
It seemed wise not to centralize in a 
large city. The same argument has 
led several American states to desig¬ 
nate a small town as a capital. 

5. The assembly elected a yearly council 

of ten, a senate, and a general. The 
latter might not serve two terms in 
succession. 

6. The cities retained control, each of its 

local affairs, but turned over to the 
central government authority to send 
ambassadors, to make treaties, and de¬ 
clare war. The individual city of the 
federation gave up all right to ne¬ 
gotiate with foreign governments. If 
Macedon, for instance, sent a mes¬ 
senger to lay a proposal before the 
citizens of a town, the constitution 
required that the messenger be refer¬ 
red to the central government. 

As time went by, the relations between 
Sparta and the league became strained. 
Under the leadership of ambitious men, 
civil war broke out. Sparta won. The 
leader of the league invited Macedonia 
to resume a policy of “protection.” Ro¬ 
man legions relieved Macedonia of further 
responsibility. Greece, as a political or¬ 
ganization, was not heard from again for 
many centuries. 


ACHATES—ACHILLES 


The Achaean constitution developed two 
weaknesses. Theoretically, it gave every 
man a chance to take a personal part in 
legislation. Practically, only the wealthy 
and their dependents could afford the time 
and expense required to attend the meet¬ 
ings. The officers served without pay. 
Democracies then, as now, did not favor 
large salaries. The consequence was that, 
although every voter was eligible to office, 
only the rich could afford to take office. 
For these reasons the conduct of the 
league really fell into the hands of the 
aristocracy. 

Achates, a-ka'tez, the faithful squire 
and companion of Aeneas, the hero of Vir¬ 
gil’s Aeneid, usually spoken of as “fidus 
Achates” These words have come to be 
synonymous for a faithful friend. See 
Aeneid. 

Achelous, ak-e-16'us, in Greek mythol¬ 
ogy, a river god, son of Oceanus and Te- 
thys, and the eldest of their three thousand 
sons. He fought with Hercules for the 
favor of Dejanira. Hercules was victori¬ 
ous. When he saw that he was in danger, 
Achelous changed himself into the form 
of a snake. Hercules exclaimed, “It was 
the labor of my infancy to conquer snakes,” 
and clasped the neck of the snake in his 
strong hands. Achelous was nearly stran¬ 
gled, and quickly assumed the form of a 
bull. Hercules threw his arms about the 
bull’s neck, and, drawing its head to the 
ground, overthrew the animal upon the 
sand. He then grasped the horn of the 
bull and tore it from its head. This horn 
was "consecrated by the Naiades, and was 
called Cornucopia and regarded as the sym¬ 
bol of Plenty, but Achelous fought no more 
with Hercules. See Amalthea; Her¬ 
cules. 

Acheron, ak'e-ron, in classical mythol¬ 
ogy, one of the five rivers of Hades. 
The Acheron was tributary to the Cocytus, 
the Cocytus tributary to the Styx. The 
name Acheron means “River of Sorrows,” 
or “River of Eternal Woe.” In the later 
legends, Acheron was a son of Helios and 
Demeter, who gave drink to the Titans 
during their war with Zeus. For thus aid¬ 
ing the enemy, he was punished by being 
transformed into an infernal river. The 


name Acheron is used figuratively to desig¬ 
nate the whole lower world. Milton speaks 
of the river in the second book of Paradise 
Lost as “Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and 
deep.” See Hades; Cocytus; Styx; 
Charon. 

Achilles, a-kil'lez, a legendary hero 
of the expedition against Troy. Homer 
makes him the hero of the Iliad. Pieced 
together from various sources, the story of 
Achilles may be outlined briefly. He was 
the son of the sea goddess Thetis, who 
dipped him in the river Styx to render 
him proof against wounds; but the heel by 
which she held him was unwet by the 
water. To prevent his going to war, she 
sent him disguised as a girl to be brought 
up among the daughters of a neighboring 
king. Crafty Ulysses, desiring to enlist 
the young man for the Trojan War, and 
suspecting his place of concealment, pre¬ 
sented himself as a peddler or traveling 
merchant with a pack of finery and orna¬ 
ments, among which he included a shield 
and spear. The ruse worked well. The 
handsomest young lady among them all 
disregarded the articles of feminine attire 
and turned to the weapons with undisguised 
admiration. Ulysses gave a cry of alarm, 
at which the girls shrieked and fled; but 
Achilles seized shield and spear and put 
himself in a posture of defense against the 
supposed approach of an enemy. After 
this, disguise was no longer possible; he re¬ 
turned home, manned fifty ships with his 
troops, the Myrmidons, and joined the 
Greek forces against Troy. 

During the siege he became offended at 
the overbearing conduct of Agamemnon, 
and withdrew his forces into camp. Later 
at the intercession of the Greeks, now hard 
pressed, he loaned his armor to his best 
friend Patroclus. The well known helmet 
and crest of Achilles put new courage into 
the Greeks and daunted the Trojans; but 
Trojan Paris was so far unfortunate as to 
kill Patroclus. In his grief Achilles, pro¬ 
vided with new armor by Vulcan, put 
himself at the head of his Myrmidons, and 
assailed the Trojans on the plain before 
the city. Killing Hector in a personal 
combat, he dragged him behind his chariot 
about the walls of Troy, yet yielded the 


ACHILLES’ TENDON—ACID 


dead body to the aged King Priam, who 
came in person to the Greek camp to beg 
the sad boon of burying his son. Later, 
while endeavoring to storm the Scaean gate, 
an arrow of Paris, directed by Apollo, 
reached the vulnerable heel of the hero 
and caused his death. 

See Troy; Hector. 

Achilles’ Tendon, the large cord that 
runs from the muscles of the calf of the 
leg to the heel. The name arises from a 
pretty little mythological story to be found 
in the preceding article. When a person 
wishes to stand on tiptoe, he shortens the 
muscles above this tendon, thus drawing 
up the heel and causing the foot to turn at 
the ankle and point the toe downward. 

Acid, as'id, a term given early in the 
history of chemistry to substances that 
had a sour taste. The name is derived 
from the Latin acetum, meaning sharp or 
sour, and was first applied to vinegar to 
indicate its characteristic property. The 
meaning of the term was later broadened 
to include all acid-like substances, and the 
word acetic was made to apply specifically 
to the acid of vinegar. Also, a general 
property of acids is their power to change 
the color of certain dyes, as, for example, 
litmus. When litmus is brought into a so¬ 
lution containing an acid, the natural blue 
color is changed to red. But some acids 
are neither sour nor have the power to 
change the color of a dye. These as a 
rule are insoluble in water and belong to 
the class generally called “weak” acids. 
The liberation of hydrogen gas when an 
acid is brought in contact with certain met¬ 
als, as zinc or magnesium, is another im¬ 
portant characteristic. Alongside of this 
is also the property of combining with alka¬ 
lies, such as caustic soda or caustic potash. 
Chemically, an acid may be defined as a 
compound containing hydrogen which can 
be replaced by a metal. Hydrogen is the 
only essential constituent of all acids. 
Many other substances, like sugar, kero¬ 
sene, and alcohol, also contain hydrogen; 
but not one of them shows all of the 
properties of an acid. Among the common 
elements forming acids in combination with 
hydrogen, or with hydrogen and oxygen, 
are carbon, chlorine, nitrogen, sulphur, 


phosphorus, silicon, and arsenic. When free 
from water, acids do not conduct electrici¬ 
ty ; dissolved in water they conduct, and are 
decomposed by, the electric current, hydro¬ 
gen being liberated. A base is opposite in 
properties to an acid, as in general it re¬ 
stores the blue color of litmus and destroys 
or neutralizes the acid. The interaction of 
an acid with a base forms a distinct com¬ 
pound, called a salt. 

There is an enormous number of acids, 
most of which occur ready-formed in the 
earth or in plants and animals. Many 
acids are manufactured products. The 
common acids are hydrochloric acid, sul¬ 
phuric acid, and nitric acid. The usual 
forms are solutions of the acids in water. 
Hydrochloric acid has a pungent, suffocat¬ 
ing odor. The commercial article, known 
also as muriatic acid, is a solution of the 
gas, hydrogen chloride, in water. When 
heated, effervescence ensues, a poition of 
the gas being driven out. The acid occurs 
among the gases emitted by volcanoes. It 
is manufactured from common salt. Ni¬ 
tric acid, sometimes called aqua fortis, is a 
fuming liquid having a suffocating odor. 
It colors animal tissue, notably the skin, 
yellow. So-called fuming nitric acid has 
a brown-red color. The acid occurs in very 
small quantity in air, rain water, and 
spring water. It is manufactured on a 
large scale from Chile saltpeter. It is used 
much in the arts in dyeing, in the etching 
of metals, and in medicine. Sulphuric acid, 
also called oil of vitriol, is a heavy, oily, 
strongly corrosive liquid. It has a strong 
affinity for water, and when mixed with 
water a large amount of heat is developed. 
Organic matter is charred, the acid acquir¬ 
ing a brown color. The acid occurs in 
small amount in volcanic waters. Enor¬ 
mous quantities are manufactured in Eng¬ 
land and the United States, each country 
producing upward of a million tons an¬ 
nually. The method of manufacture is 
complicated and consists in bringing sul¬ 
phur dioxide, made by roasting pyrites, 
and nitric acid in contact with air and 
steam in large lead chambers. Sulphuric 
acid is more commonly used than any other 
acid and for a greater variety of purposes; 
for example, in refining petroleum, in the 


ACONCAGUA—ACROPOLIS 


manufacture of fertilizers, in bleaching and 
dyeing, in the production of coal-tar dyes, 
and, in conjunction with nitric acid, in the 
manufacture of nitroglycerin and guncot¬ 
ton. Among the acids occurring chiefly in 
plants and animals, the so-called organic 
acids, the best known is acetic acid- This 
acid is a colorless, clear liquid of strongly 
acid reaction. Almost all of the acetic 
acid used in the industrial arts is made 
by the dry distillation of wood. Large 
quantities of the weaker acid are made 
from dilute alcohol. A dilute solution of 
the acid, known as vinegar, is made by 
passing the alcohol in a slow stream 
through a barrel filled with beech shavings. 
The fermentation of the alcohol to acid is 
aided by bacteria, so-called “mother-of- 
vinegar.” Citric acid is found in the 
lemon, currant, cranberry, and other sour 
fruits; oxalic acid, in Oxalis (sheep sor¬ 
rel) ; malic acid, in sour fruits, especially 
apples, and in maple sap; formic acid, in 
red ants, stinging nettles, pine needles, the 
honey bee, and honey; butyric acid, in ran¬ 
cid butter, Limburger cheese, and sauer¬ 
kraut ; lactic acid, in sour milk and sauer¬ 
kraut ; palmitic acid, in palm oil; tartaric 
acid, one of the most widely distributed 
acids, in grapes. The salts of tartaric acid 
are called tartrates, chief among which is 
the well known cream of tartar. 

Julius Hortvet. 

Aconcagua, a'kon-ka'gwa, the highest 
peak of the Andes and the highest moun¬ 
tain of the Western Continent, rising 23,- 
080 feet above sea level. It is situated 
between Aconcagua, a province of Chile, 
and Mendoza, a department of the Argen¬ 
tine Republic, to which country the moun¬ 
tain belongs. Aconcagua is an extinct vol¬ 
cano. A river of this region bears also 
the name of Aconcagua. 

Aconite, ak'o-nlt, a plant of the but¬ 
tercup or crowfoot family. Aconite is com¬ 
monly known as monkshood and as wolfs¬ 
bane. There are over twenty species, sev¬ 
eral of which grow wild in the United 
States. The flowers of the several species 
differ in color, being variously violet, yel¬ 
low, and even white. The common monks¬ 
hood is blue. One of the five sepals is 
shaped like a helmet or hood. The com¬ 


mon aconite has roots somewhat like thoie 
of the horseradish. The leaves and roots 
yield a deadly poison which destroys the 
functions of the nervous system and pro¬ 
duces palsy of the muscles. It acts power 
fully on the heart, ultimately paralyzing 
it. A tincture of aconite root is made to al¬ 
lay neuralgic pain by producing temporary 
numbness. The assassins of India dipped 
their arrows in a preparation made from 
an aconite found in the Himalayas. See 
Poison. 

Acoustics. See Sound. 

Acre, a unit customarily used in measur¬ 
ing land. The original meaning of the 
word is a field, pasture, or hunting ground. 
The historical acre of England was -as 
much ground as a yoke of oxen could plow 
in a day. In the thirteenth century the 
acre w r as fixed by Parliament at 160 square 
rods or perches. This is still the legal 
measure in Great Britain and in America. 
As compared with this statute acre, the 
Scotch acre contains 1.27, the Irish acre, 
1.62, the Welsh, .89, and the hectare of the 
metric system, 2.47 acres. A section of 
land, American survey, contains 640 acres 
and is one mile square. 

Acropolis, a-krop'o-lis, a Greek word 
signifying the high part of a city, the por¬ 
tion set on a hill. The name grew out 
of the fact that Greek cities were founded 
usually on an eminence which was fortified 
as a citadel. As the city grew, it spread 
to the lower grounds and was not infre¬ 
quently surrounded by a strong wall; while 
the acropolis was made the site of the 
temple and other public buildings. This 
was the case of Argos, Thebes, and Cor¬ 
inth. The most noted acropolis is that of . 
Athens. The acropolis of Athens is a table 
of rock about 260 feet high. It is a spur 
of Mt. Hymettus with precipitous sides 
except on the w r est, where a zigzag road 
was built, accessible by chariots. The sum¬ 
mit was surrounded by massive walls. A 
number of notable buildings were erected 
here, the best of which were two temples, 
the Parthenon and the Erechtheum. The 
famous open air theaters of Athens were 
constructed on the sides of this acropolis. 
See Athens i Pericles : Parthenon. 

Into the center of the entire plain advances 



ACROSTIC—ACT OF GOD 


from the direction of Hymettus a group of 
rocky heights, among them an entirely separate 
and mighty block which, with the exception of a 
narrow access from the west, offers on all sides 
vertically precipitous walls, surmounted by a 
broad level sufficiently roomy to afford space 
for the sanctuaries of the national gods and the 
habitations of the national rulers. It seems as 
if nature had designedly placed this rock in 
this position as the ruling castle and the center 
of the national history. This is the Ac-ropolis 
of Athens.—E. Curtius, History of Greece. 

Acrostic, a composition so arranged 
that the initial letters of the lines taken 
in order spell out some name, title, 
or motto, or follow the order, of the al¬ 
phabet. An acrostic- may be written in 
such a way that the final letters or, in¬ 
deed, any letters, have a similar effect. 
Edgar A. Poe is credited with an acrostic 
so framed that the first letter of the first 
line, the second letter of the second line, 
the third letter of the third line, etc., 
formed the name Francis Sargent Osgood. 
Addison (see Spectator No. 60), consid¬ 
ered the maker of an acrostic a mere block- 

* 

head, saying, “I have seen some of them 
where the verses have not only been edged 
by a name at every extremity, but have had 
the same name running down like a seam 
through the middle of the poem.” 

One of the most famous acrostics in his¬ 
tory was formed in the time of Charles II. 
Some wit noted that the names of the min¬ 
isters, Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Ar¬ 
lington, and Lauderdale, could be arranged 
in such a way that their initials formed 
the word cabal, a term signifying low po¬ 
litical intrigue. The word cabal has ever 
since had additional significance. It is 
now taken to mean a junta or clique of 
persons organized for some questionable 
purpose. 

Psalm cxix is an acrostic. In the orig¬ 
inal Hebrew the initial letters of the di¬ 
visions form the alphabet. The juvenile 
jingle, “A apple pie; B baked it; C cut 
it,” etc., is a familiar nursery acrostic. 

Act, in the presentation of drama, one 
of the main divisions of a play, in which 
a definite portion of the action is completed. 
The divisions of drama into act and scene 
may mark a change of time or place. 
They give relief to both actors and au¬ 
dience from the strain of a long play, and 


also afford opportunity for change of cos¬ 
tume and scenery. The unities of the 
Greek drama made separation into acts un¬ 
necessary. The Roman theater first adopt¬ 
ed the division of a play into acts, and 
made five the regular number. Horace 
mentions this as a fixed rule, and it was 
obeyed by all dramatists of the Renais¬ 
sance. Shakespeare, who paid little atten¬ 
tion to any of the accepted rules of dra¬ 
matic art, invariably divides his dramas 
into five acts. In light comedy, the rule 
is no longer regarded as essential; but in 
tragedy, where the action is weighty, there 
seems to be a real reason for the five acts. 
In every great action, there are naturally 
three parts, the introduction, the climax, 
and the conclusion. By presenting the in¬ 
troduction, or causes leading to the climax, 
in two acts instead of one, the characters 
are better developed, the interest is deep¬ 
ened, and the climax, being in a measure 
anticipated, is more impressive. So two 
acts leading from the climax to the final 
catastrophe allow the mind of the specta¬ 
tor to grasp more fully the sadness and 
horror of the situation, and thus those 
emotions which real tragedy should arouse 
are more deeply stirred. See Drama ; 
Tragedy; Comedy; Scene. 

Act of God, a legal expression used to 
cover natural and accidental disasters be¬ 
yond the control of man. Cyclones, hail¬ 
storms, strokes of lightning, and storms at 
sea are acts of God in a legal sense. Rail¬ 
roads, steamships and other carriers cus¬ 
tomarily insert a clause in their bills of 
lading to the effect that they shall not be 
held responsible for any loss or damage to 
goods arising from an act of God. Courts 
hold, however, that the loss must be due 
immediately to the act of God in order 
that a carrier may escape responsibility. If, 
for instance, lightning should strike a stock 
car and kill several fine steers, the railway 
company could not be held for the value of 
the steers; but if a stroke of lightning 
should set fire to a bridge, and a stock train 
should later break through, the company 
could be required to pay losses on the 
ground that the accident might have been 
prevented by human forethought and cau¬ 
tion. 


ACTIUM—ADAM 


Actium, ak'shi-um, a promontory made 
famous by a naval battle, 31 B. C., in 
which Octavius, afterward called Augus¬ 
tus Caesar, won the victory over Antony 
and Cleopatra, and became master of the 
Roman Empire. The promontory in mod¬ 
ern times bears the name of La Punta. It 
is situated in the northern part of 
Acarnania, a province of Greece. Augus¬ 
tus enlarged the temple of Apollo w'hich 
w r as located near by, and in honor of his 
victory instituted there the quinquennial 
games which were called “Actia” or “Ludi 
Actiaca.” 

Actor or Actress, in the drama, one who 
represents a character, or acts a part in 
a play. The first actor of the early Greek 
drama w r as a minstrel or rhapsode, who re¬ 
cited epic poems between the songs of the 
chorus. Soon two actors instead of one 
appeared; then three, and gradually the 
number increased. The actors were in¬ 
variably men or boys. The first actress 
to appear on any stage performed in France 
and England during the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury. 

The actors of the first miracle plays were 
priests who used this method to teach and 
preach to the people. As these plays in¬ 
creased in popularity, the laity became ac¬ 
tors. In their prime, the miracle plays were 
undoubtedly presented by skillful actors. 
In York, in the year 1476, four of the 
best players were appointed to examine 
would-be actors and select such as 
should take part. Much difficulty was 
caused by the great number of applicants. 
The following ordinance was issued : “All 
such as they shall find sufficient in person 
and cunning, to the honor of the city and 
worship of the said crafts, for to admit 
and able; and all other insufficient per¬ 
sons, either in cunning, voice, or person, 
to discharge, ammove and avoid.” 

During the Elizabethan age the actors 
of dramas were usually young men of good 
ramily, frequently students from some uni¬ 
versity. The profession of acting brought 
them money and notoriety. It was doubt¬ 
less in many instances regarded as good 
sport, bringing them into pleasant com¬ 
pany. However, actors were not held in 
good repute. They were considered, and 


probably deserved to be considered, very 
wild, and were classed usually with the 
dissolute. 

Our great actors and actresses are fre¬ 
quently looked upon as marvelously gifted 
by nature, and too little credit is given 
them for the months and years of laborious 
toil wffiich have been spent in mastering the 
art. The actor must study each new 
part until he so far becomes the charac¬ 
ter he would represent as to be able to 
interpret his own conception to his au¬ 
dience by speech and gesture. The laws of 
gesture, or “bodily eloquence,” as it has 
been called, control the actor’s bearing, 
v'alk, expression, and movements of face 
and limbs. The laws of rhetoric must 
regulate pronunciation, modulation, accent, 
and rhythm. Through all, and in all, must 
be that human sympathy and self-forget¬ 
fulness which enables him really to live 
the part he w r ould present. 

Among actors and actresses w T ho have 
won a w'orld wide reputation may be men¬ 
tioned John Philip Kemble, Charles Kem¬ 
ble, Mrs. Siddons, Edwin Booth, .Sarah 
Bernhardt, Joseph Jefferson, Henry Irving, 
Mary Anderson-Navarro, Ellen Terry, 
William Macready, and David Garrick, 
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Elnora 
Duse, William H. Gillette, Sir Herbert 
Beerbohm Tree, Tommaso Salvini, Rob¬ 
ert Mantell, Edmund Kean, Benoit Con¬ 
stant Coquelin and Richard Mansfield. 

Adam, in the Scriptural account of the 
creation, is the first man, whom “the 
Lord formed of the dust of the ground.” 
The word Adam in the Hebrew is an 
appellative noun and means the first man. 
Its etymology is uncertain but it is be¬ 
lieved to be connected with a root which 
signifies “ruddy” or “red.” In the Bible 
story, Adam gives “names to all cattle, 
and to the fowl of the air, and to every 
beast of the field,” and is given dominion 
over all these creatures. But because he 
is alone and has no helpmeet, the Lord 
God causes a deep sleep to fall upon him 
and takes one of his ribs, and from it 
makes a woman,—Eve. The account of 
the life of the first couple in the beautiful 
garden where God himself “walked in the 
cool of the day,” and where grew the tree 


ADAM BEDE—ADAMS 


of life, and the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil, is one of the most fascinat¬ 
ing in all literature. Their peaceful life 
is interrupted by the temptations of the 
wily serpent; Eve yields to him and again 
Adam yields to her, whence follow shame, 
discovery, punishment, the curse, the ban¬ 
ishment from the garden and “the flaming 
sword which turned every way to keep 
the way of the tree of life.” The story of 
his sons Cain and Abel is well known. 
Another son, Seth, is mentioned in the fifth 
chapter of Genesis as having been born 
when Adam was 130 years of age. Adam 
lived to be 930 years old and it is stated 
that at the time of his death his descen¬ 
dants numbered 40,000 souls. See Eden. 

Adam Bede, the earliest of George 
Eliot’s novels. It was published in 1859. It 
is her most popular tale. The hero, Adam 
Bede, is a young carpenter. He is a strik¬ 
ing example of the nobility of a common¬ 
place nature in ordinary surroundings. The 
character is said to be in part a portrait 
of Mr. Evans, George Eliot’s father. Oth¬ 
er interesting characters are Hetty Sorrel, 
Dinah Moore, the woman preacher, and 
Mrs. Poyser. The picture of Adam sing¬ 
ing at his work presents a fine type of the 
young English workman. 

Such a voice could only come from a broad 
chest, and the broad chest belonged to a large¬ 
boned, muscular man nearly six feet high, with 
a back so flat and a head so well poised that, 
when he drew himself up to take a more distant 
survey of his work, he had the air of a soldier 
standing at ease. The sleeve rolled up above 
the elbow showed an arm that was likely to win 
the prize for feats of strength; yet the long sup¬ 
ple hand, with its broad finger-tips, looked ready 
for works of skill. In his tall stalwartness 
Adam Bede was a Saxon, and justified his name; 
but the jet-black hair, made the more noticeable 
by its contrast with the light paper cap, and 
the keen glance of the dark eyes that shone from 
under strongly marked, prominent and mobile 
eyebrows, indicated a mixture of Celtic blood. 
The face was large and roughly hewn, and when 
in repose had no other beauty than such as be¬ 
longs to an expression of goodhumored, honest 
intelligence. 

Adam is not a man of many words, but 
he lets fall some bits of wisdom: 

“I hate to see a man’s arms drop down as if 
he was shot, before the clock’s fairly struck, just 
as if he’d never a bit o’ pride and delight in ’s 
work. The very grindstone ’ull go on turning 
a bit after you loose it.” 


“I wouldn’t give a penny for a man as ’ud 
drive a nail in slack because he didn’t get extra 
pay for it.” 

“I’ve seen pretty clear ever since I could cast 
up a sum, as you can never do what’s wrong 
without breeding sin and trouble more than you 
can ever see.” 

“A good solid bit o’ work lasts: if it’s only 
laying a floor down, somebody’s the better for 
it being done well, besides the man as does it.” 

Adam’s Apple, a name applied in 
sport to the enlarged gristly framework in 
the throat of a man. It is known to 
physiologists as the larynx. It is said that 
when Eve gave Adam the forbidden apple 
the core lodged in his throat. See Larynx. 

Adams, Charles Francis (1807-1886), 
an American statesman. He was the son 
of John Quincy Adams, the sixth presi¬ 
dent of the United States, and was born 
at Boston. At the age of two he was 
taken to St. Petersburg where the family 
resided several years, the father being min¬ 
ister to Russia. Here Charles learned the 
Russian, German, and French languages. 
Later, when the elder Adams was appoint¬ 
ed minister to England, the boy was placed 
in an English boarding school. On re¬ 
turning to America he attended a Boston 
Latin School, graduated from Harvard, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1828, hav¬ 
ing studied law in the office of Daniel 
Webster. In 1831 Adams became a Whig 
member of the Massachusetts legislature; 
in 1848 was a candidate for the vice presi¬ 
dency, and was member of Congress from 
Massachusetts 1859-61. He was minister 
to England for seven years, and was ar¬ 
bitrator at the Geneva tribunal 1871-72. 
Adams was the author of The Life and 
Works of John Adams, and edited the 
Diary of John Quincy Adams. 

Adams, Charles Kendall (1835-1902), 
an American educator and writer. He was 
a native of Vermont. When quite young 
he moved to Iowa, and later entered the 
University of Michigan, from which in¬ 
stitution he was graduated in 1861. Two 
years later he became assistant professor 
of history at his alma mater, and was 
shortly after elected to a full professor¬ 
ship. In 1885 he was made president of 
Cornell University and in 1892 president 
of the University of Wisconsin, which 


ADAMS 


position he filled until 1901. He was the 
author of many pamphlets and articles on 
educational subjects, and of the books, 
Democracy and Monarchy in France, and 
Manual of Historical Literature. 

Adams, John (1735-1826), the second 
president of the United States. He was 
born at Braintree (now Quincy), Massa¬ 
chusetts, October 19, 1735. He graduated 
from Harvard College in 1755, and was 
admitted to the bar three years later. In 
1774, he represented Massachusetts in the 
first Continental Congress. The following 
quotation from a letter written by him at 
this time gave the keynote of Webster’s 
supposed speech pf John Adams: “The 
die is now cast; I have passed the Rubi¬ 
con. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or 
perish with my country, is my unalterable 
determination.” In May, 1776, he moved 
the resolution that the colony “should as¬ 
sume the duty of self-government.” In 
June he seconded Richard Henry Lee’s 
resolution that the United States “are, and 
of right, ought to be, free and independ¬ 
ent.” Mr. Adams was one of a committee 
of five appointed to draw up the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence. He was Minister 
to France, 1778-1779. With Franklin and 
Jay he negotiated the treaty of peace with 
Great Britain. He was minister to Eng¬ 
land, 1785-1788. Schouler, the historian, 
calls Adams a “burly, round-faced, bald- 
headed, irascible man.” During Washing¬ 
ton’s term as president Adams served as 
vice-president. He was chosen by the 
Federalists to succeed Washington, but 
failed of reelection. Mr. Adams then re¬ 
tired from public life to a large estate at 
Quincy, Massachusetts, w T here he interested 
himself in agriculture. He died July 4, 
1826, on the same day as Thomas Jeffer¬ 
son. 

Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, 
was one of the famous women of the 
White House. During her residence in 
Paris with her husband she wrote notes on 
French society that gave no little offense 
to the French people. 

Adams, John Quincy (1767-1848), 
the sixth president of the United States. 
He was a son of President John Adams 
and was also a graduate of Harvard, where 


he received his degree in 1788. He was 
admitted to the bar 1791, and in 1794 was 
appointed minister to Holland. In 1797, 
he received a similar appointment to Ber¬ 
lin. From 1803-1808, he served as United 
States senator from Massachusetts. In 
1809, he became minister to Russia, and 
in 1815, to England. He became secretary 
of state under Monroe in 1817. In 
1824 Mr. Adams was elected president 
and served one term. He was defeated 
for reelection by Andrew Jackson. In 
1830 he was sent to Congress, a position 
which he retained for seventeen years. He 
was the first ex-president to take a seat in 
the House of Representatives. 

Mr. Adams was a man of strong feelings 
and of a constructive mind. As secretary 
of state he negotiated the purchase of Flor¬ 
ida from Spain for $5,000,000. Russia 
was preparing to assert claims to a 
large portion of the territory adjacent to 
Alaska, thus endangering our title to Ore¬ 
gon. Secretary Adams notified the Russian 
minister that “we should contest the right 
of Russia to any territorial establishment 
on this continent, and that w r e should as¬ 
sume distinctly the principle that the Amer¬ 
ican continents are no longer subjects for 
any new European colonial establish¬ 
ments.” This declaration was the germ 
of the Monroe Doctrine. As president, 
Mr. Adams favored a vigorous policy of 
internal improvement. Four million dol¬ 
lars of national money was expended on 
canals and roads. The Cumberland Road, 
the great artery for westward migration, 
was extended toward St. Louis. During 
his administration, the bill, dubbed the 
Tariff of Abomination, was enacted. 

Mr. Adams’ return to public life after 
his defeat for reelection to the presidency 
was due to local sentiment. He was in no 
sense a party leader, and was out of sym¬ 
pathy with American politics. He was 
elected representative by anti-masonic sen¬ 
timent and entered the House as an inde¬ 
pendent, an attitude which he maintained 
consistently to the end. Adams was an 
ardent supporter of the anti-slavery cause. 
He was one of seven congressmen to vote 
against the Pinckney resolution which de¬ 
clared that Congress had no authority to 


ADAMS—ADAMSON LAW 


interfere with or restrict slavery where es¬ 
tablished. He fought nine years to abolish 
a congressional rule popularly known as 
the “gag-law,” which forbade the reception 
of further petitions for the abolition or 
restriction of slavery. In this he was a 
champion of the right of petition, and won 
the name of the “Old Man Eloquent.” 

Mr. Adams died literally “in the har¬ 
ness.” He fell on the floor of the House 
with a stroke of apoplexy, surviving but 
two days. He was succeeded in Congress 
by Horace Mann. 

Adams, Maude (1872-), an American 
actress. She was born at Salt Lake City 
where her mother was leading woman in a 
stock company. As a little girl Maude 
appeared on the stage in child parts. At 
the age of sixteen she joined the E. H. 
Sothern Company of New York, and was 
a member, later, of Charles Frohman’s 
company. She supported John Drew for 
several years and has starred in a number 
of plays. Her most popular parts are 
Babbie in The Little Minister, and Peter 
Pan . She has a summer home at Ron- 
konkoma, Long Island. 

Adams, Samuel (1722-1803),'a native 
of Boston. Samuel Adams was a second 
cousin of John Adams. He was graduated 
at Harvard in 1740. Adams became, a 
merchant, but attended to the people’s busi¬ 
ness to the neglect of his own. Sam 
Adams, as he was familiarly called, took 
so prominent and determined a part in op¬ 
posing the Stamp Act, in organizing the 
Boston Tea Party, in addressing public 
meetings, and in organizing opposition to 
the British generally, that he had the dis¬ 
tinguished honor of being one of two men 
exempted by name from a general pardon 
offered by the British government in 1775. 
Adams was a member of the first Conti¬ 
nental Congress, 1774; he signed the Dec¬ 
laration of Independence, 1776. He was 
a member of the state senate and a member 
of the state convention which ratified the 
Federal Constitution in 1778. In later 
politics he was a Jeffersonian, as opposed 
to the Federalists, thus becoming a political 
opponent of John Adams. He was elected 
governor of Massachusetts, 1794, and was 
reelected twice. Adams was an incorrupt¬ 


ible patriot. Among the Revolutionary 
figures of Boston, Sam Adams is the popu¬ 
lar hero. Well educated and well com 
nected, he was decidedly a man of the 
people. John Adams, with whom he was 
not always in accord, credited him with 
merit and talent, saying of his writings 
that they contained “specimens of a nerv¬ 
ous simplicity of reasoning and eloquence 
that have never been rivaled in America.” 

Sam Adams understood the value of the 
town meeting and impromptu discussion. 
He knew how to further his purpose by 
calling the citizens together and getting 
them to carry out his plans, thinking they 
were doing their own will. He was a 
shrewd and beneficent political “boss.” 
For instance, as early as 1772, at a town 
meeting held in Faneuil Hall, he moved 
the appointment of a “Committee of Cor¬ 
respondence.” This committee had no le¬ 
gal or official existence. The British au¬ 
thorities could get no hold on it, but it 
had the public behind it. The idea took all 
over New England. It caught in Virginia, 
and led to the Intercolonial Committee of 
Correspondence. In this way Adams may 
be said to have engineered and made pos¬ 
sible the American Revolution. 

See Revere ; Caucus. 

Adams, William Taylor (1822-1897), 
an American editor and author, better 
known by his pseudonym of Oliver Optic. 
He was a teacher for many years in Bos¬ 
ton. He wrote many stories of travel and 
adventure for young people. Young 
American Abroad, Starry Flag Series, 
River dale Series, and Onward and Upward 
are among them. He founded and edited 
Oliver Optic s Magazine. 

Adamson Law, a law enacted by Con¬ 
gress in September, 1916, to prevent a 
threatened strike by the four great railroad 
brotherhoods to secure the eight hour day 
and several minor concessions, chiefly with 
regard to wages. The controversy between 
the railroads and the brotherhoods was 
carried on for months, and culminated in 
a demand by American business associa¬ 
tions that the dispute be settled by arbi¬ 
tration. 

Thereupon, President Wilson made an 
arbitration proposal to the brotherhoods, 


ADDAMS 


and to the railway executives. The latter 
found that the President’s plan was not 
acceptable. A deadlock ensued, and on 
August 27 the brotherhoods issued a secret 
strike order, effective September 4 (Labor 
Day). 

The President then went before Con¬ 
gress and pled for the passage of a law 
that would serve to remove what had be¬ 
come a menace to the industrial life of the 
nation. Conferences between House and 
Senate administration leaders revealed the 
fact that not all the legislation requested 
by the President could be secured. The 
brotherhoods, through their spokesmen, let 
it be known that if a bill satisfactory to 
them could be passed by September 2 the 
strike order would be rescinded, but not 
otherwise. Congress then passed what is 
known as the Adamson Law, which pro¬ 
vides, in part— 

Sec. 1. That, beginning Jan. 1, 1917, 
eight hours shall, in contracts for labor and 
service, be deemed a day’s work and the 
measure or standard of a day’s work for 
the purpose of reckoning the compensation 
for services of all employes who are now 
or may hereafter be employed by any com¬ 
mon carrier by railroad, except railroads 
independently owned and operated not 
exceeding 100 miles in length, electric 
street railroads and electric interurban rail¬ 
roads, which are subject to the provisions 
of the act of Feb. 4, 1887, entitled ‘An act 
to regulate commerce,’ as amended, and 
w r ho are now or may hereafter be actually 
engaged in any capacity in the operation 
of trains used for the transportation of 
persons or property on railroads, except 
railroads independently owned and oper¬ 
ated not exceeding 100 miles in length, 
electric street railroads and electric inter¬ 
urban railroads, from any state or territory 
of the United States or the District of 
Columbia to any other state or territory 
of the United States or the District of 
Columbia, or from one place in a territory 
to another place in the same territory, or 
from any place in the United States to an 
adjacent foreign country, or from any 
place in the United States through a for¬ 
eign country to any other place in the 
United States: Provided, That the above 


exceptions shall not apply to railroads 
though less than 100 miles in length whose 
principal business is leasing or furnishing 
terminal or transfer facilities to other rail¬ 
roads, or are themselves engaged in trans¬ 
fers of freight between railroads or be¬ 
tween railroads and industrial plants. 

Sec. 2. That the President shall ap¬ 
point a commission of three, which shall 
observe the operation and effect of the 
institution of the eight hour standard work 
day as above defined and the facts and 
conditions affecting the relations between 
such common carriers and employes during 
a period of not less than six months nor 
more than nine months, in the discretion of 
the commission, and within thirty days 
thereafter such commission shall report its 
findings to the President and Congress. 

Sec. 3. That pending the report of the 
commission herein provided for and for a 
period of thirty days thereafter the com¬ 
pensation of railway employes subject to 
this act for a standard eight hour work¬ 
day shall not be reduced below the present 
standard day’s wage, and for all necessary 
time in excess of eight hours such employes 
shall be paid at the rate not less than the 
pro rata rate for such standard eight hour 
workday. 

Sec. 4. That any person violating any 
provision of this act shall be guilty of a 
misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be 
fined not less than $100 and not more than 
$1,000, or imprisoned not to exceed one 
year, or both. 

The bill was signed by President Wilson 
on Sunday, Sept. 3, and also on Tuesday, 
Sept. 5, in case the Sunday signature should 
prove to be illegal. 

Addams, Jane, an American settlement 
worker. Born at Cedarville, Illinois, Sep¬ 
tember 6, 1860. Graduated at Rockford 
College in 1881. While pursuing post¬ 
graduate studies in England, Miss Addams 
became interested in the workings of Toyn¬ 
bee Hall, a university settlement in the 
Whitechapel district of East London. In 
1889 she secured the cooperation of 
wealthy people and established Hull 
House, a similar settlement in a crowded 
portion of Chicago. See Hull House. 

She soon acquired an enviable reputation 




ADDER—ADDISON 


for executive ability, and in a short time 
she attained to a position of leadership in 
the social settlement movement. The prob¬ 
lems of city administration interested her, 
and for a period of three years she served 
as inspector of streets and alleys in the poor 
district about Hull House. This brought 
Miss Addams into the closest contact with 
many and varied people; and her ability 
and insight enabled her to use each sepa¬ 
rate experience while in this work to extend 
and intensify the activities of social set¬ 
tlement. 

Miss Addams has served on the Chicago 
Board of Education, and is well known as 
a magazine writer, lecturer and author. In 
1912 she took a prominent part in the 
organization of the Progressive Party and 
was vice-president of the National Wom¬ 
en’s Suffrage Association. In 1915 she 
presided at the International Peace Con¬ 
ference of Women at the Hague. 

After the entrance of the United States 
into the World War Miss Addams became 
a vigorously outspoken pacifist. Her efforts 
to secure and perpetuate peace were not 
based upon friendliness toward the en¬ 
emy, but upon the conviction that war is 
barbaric and unnecessary.’ In 1919 she 
attended a women’s peace conference at 
Zurich, and another at Vienna in 1921. 
And after her return to the United States, 
Miss Addams wrote several articles on 
social and economic conditions as she saw 
them in Europe. 

Her published works include Democracy 
and Social Ethics, Newer Ideals of Peace, 
Twenty Years at Hull House, The Spirit 
of Youth and the City Streets, A New Con¬ 
science and an Ancient Evil, and The Long 
Road of Women’s Memory. She has also 
written articles for magazines. 

Adder. See Viper. 

Addison, Joseph, an eminent man of 
letters. Born at Milston, England, 1672. 
He was educated at the Charterhouse, Lon¬ 
don, and in the University of Oxford, 
where he distinguished himself by applica¬ 
tion and by skill in writing Latin verses. 
The elder Addison was a distinguished 
clergyman. He intended his son for the 
church, but influential friends persuaded 
the young man to prepare for public life. 


At the age of twenty-seven they secured 
him an appointment, with the privilege of 
travel for a year to two, on salary. He 
traveled chiefly in Italy and France, liv¬ 
ing for a time in the brilliant society of 
Paris and Versailles. A change in the 
English government cut this life short. 
Lie returned to England. A poem on the 
victory of Blenheim brought him to the 
notice of the Whigs, from whom he re¬ 
ceived several important appointments or 
secretaryships. He married the widowed 
Countess of Warwick, a lady of social 
standing, one who was a help so far as 
rising in the world was concerned. But 
Addison seemed to lack executive ability. 
In drawing up state papers, he is said to 
have written rather as a poet or an essayist 
than as one transacting public business of 
importance. Though one of the most fa¬ 
mous men of his day, and popular with all 
parties, he proved so unsuited for public 
place that he was forced to retire. He 
was granted a pension, however, of $7,500 
a year. 

Addison’s wife lived in style in the 
famous Holland House, but it was never a 
congenial home for Addison. His great 
delight was to spend a few hours with 
friends at a club house, where they smoked, 
drank claret, told stories, and discussed 
politics or literature. Addison died June 
17, 1719, and was buried at dead of night 
in Westminster Abbey. His death was 
universally regretted. The notable men 
of the day gathered in sad procession to 
follow his remains through the- passages 
of that wonderful abbey in whose gloomy 
recesses the poet delighted to walk, pon¬ 
dering on the uncertainty of life. 

Addison is known best as a writer of 
essays. He contributed to the small peri¬ 
odical sheets known as the Spectator, the 
Tatler, the Guardian, and the Freeholder. 
Addison was himself a genial, prosperous, 
generous man, with an intense desire to 
see everybody happy and well-doing. His 
essays were short and witty attacks on the 
vices and foibles of the day. More than 
that, they aimed to substitute, In a quiet, 
attractive fashion, positive virtues for the 
faults and follies exposed. In one of the 
Spectator papers, Addison himself says, 


ADE—ADELAIDE 


“The great and only end of these specula¬ 
tions is to banish vice and ignorance out 
of the territories of Great Britain.” His 
essays were read and discussed in every 
drawing room in the United Kingdom. 
His pictures of licentiousness, debauchery, 
drunkenness, lazy habits, coquetry, irreli- 
gion, thoughtlessness, gross eating, jeal¬ 
ousy, vanity, and love of loud display, were 
so vivid, and yet so humorous, that they 
turned the laugh of fashionable society 
against exhibitions of this sort. His de¬ 
scriptions of the corresponding virtues were 
so attractive, so sincere, and appealed so 
strongly to the better nature of people, 
that he is said to have done much to make 
quiet tones, modesty, becoming attire, gen¬ 
tle ways, truthfulness, chastity, and moder¬ 
ate living fashionable. His service to lit¬ 
erature and to society was the uniting of 
the stern virtues of the Puritans with the 
pleasures of the Cavalier. Addison taught 
that it is not necessary to be wicked in 
order to have a good time; that well-doing 
and happiness go hand in hand. In his 
dissection of a beau’s brain, for instance, 
he found that “the ogling muscles were 
very much worn and decayed with use; 
whereas, on the contrary, the elevator, or 
the muscle which turns the eye toward 
heaven, did not appear to have been used 
at all.” Speaking of young ladies, he de¬ 
scribed his method of training “a lady to 
quit her fan gracefully when she throws it 
aside in order to take up a pack of cards, 
adjust a curl of hair, replace a falling pin, 
or apply herself to any other matter of 
importance. This part of the exercise . . . 
may be learned in two days’ time.” Such 
sentences were talked over and laughed 
over in the fashionable circles of London 
until the “mashers” and “flirts” of society 
were fairly laughed out of court. Addi¬ 
son’s bright sayings were at everyone’s 
tongue’s end. The fear of ridicule did 
much to bring about a desired change of 
manners. One of his noblest essays is 
the Vision of Mirza, in which he likens 
the human race to a procession passing 
along an elevated road carried across a 
deep gulf by means of arches full of holes, 
through which, sooner or later, all travel¬ 
ers fall. 


Addison’s prose is one of the priceless 
heritages of literature. Much of his poetry 
will not be remembered. A few hymns, 
however, revealing his contemplative, in¬ 
tense, pious nature are among the finest 
in the English or any other language. It 
is small wonder that the writer of the fol¬ 
lowing lines could not bring himself to the 
successful preparation of foreign corre¬ 
spondence, designed to say much and mean 
little: 

Soon as the evening shades prevail, 

The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 

And, nightly, to the list’ning earth. 

Repeats the story of her birth ; 

While all the stars that round her burn, 

And all the planets in their turn, 

Confirm the tidings as they roll, 

And spread the truth from pole to pole. 

What though, in solemn silence, all 
Move round the dark terrestrial ball? 

What though no real voice, nor sound, 

Amid their radiant orbs be found? 

In Reason’s ear they all rejoice. 

And utter forth a glorious voice; 

Forever singing as they shine, 

“The hand that made us is divine.” 

Whoever wishes to attain an English style 
familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not 
ostentatious, must give his days and nights 
to the volumes of Addison.—Dr. Samuel John¬ 
son. 

A life prosperous and beautiful—a calm death 
—an immense fame and affection afterwards 
for his happy and spotless name.—Thackeray. 

Ade, George (1866-), an American 
journalist and author. His witty Fables 
in Slang is the best known of his writings. 
He is also the author of Artie, of a comic 
opera, The Sultan of Sulu, and of several 
successful comedies, among them, Peggy 
from Paris, The College Widow, and The 
Fair Co-Ed, Ado's Fables, and The Slim 
Princess. Some later plays are: The Old 
Town, Mrs. Peckham’s Carouse, and Nettie. 

Adelaide, ad'e-lad, the capital city of 
South Australia. It is situated on the Tor¬ 
rens River, seven miles southeast of Port 
Adelaide. It is the seat of the University 
of Adelaide and has fine government build¬ 
ings and Parliament houses, beside an ex¬ 
tensive botanical garden. The South 
Australian Institute is situated here. In 
1921 the population, including suburbs, 
was 255,318. 


ADEN—ADLER 


Aden, a'den, an important seaport on 
the southern coast of Arabia. The city 
occupies the crater of an extinct volcano. 
Volcanic bluffs, the lip of the old crater, 
encircle the city, rising to a height of 
2,000 feet. Aden was a depot of trade in 
Roman times. It is now the seat of gov¬ 
ernment, not only for British territory in 
Arabia, but for British Somaliland, a strip 
of seacoast wrested from Abyssinia. Re¬ 
cent fortresses have rendered the port one 
of the strongest fortifications in the world, 
almost ranking with Gibraltar. Aden is 
the center of the Arabian caravan trade. 
On an average 767 loaded camels swing 
into the town daily. Each is loaded with 
from 600 to 900 pounds of coffee, fodder, 
grain, fruits, vegetables, wood, charcoal, 
and water. There are no wagons, no 
horses, only camels, many from a distance 
of seven hundred miles. The trade of 
Abyssinia centers at Aden. Aden exports 
coffee, gum arabic, tobacco, hides, and other 
local products. The opening of the Suez 
Canal made Aden a coaling station on 
the way to India. Aden is a variation of 
the word Eden, meaning Paradise, the 
name being given on account of its fine 
climate, perpetual sunshine, and pleasant 
sea breezes. The population of the city 
and immediate vicinity is about 45,000. 
When it is 12 o’clock at noon in the Miss¬ 
issippi Valley, it is 9 p. m. at Aden. 

See Arabia; Suez Canal. 

Ad'enoids, a term in common use to 
designate the overgrowth of adenoid tissue 
in the upper throat or .nasopharyngeal 
vault, as it is called properly. Adenoid 
or adenose means literally “in the form 
of a gland,” and adenoid tissue is net-like 
tissue, the spaces of which are filled with 
cells resembling white blood corpuscles. 
Such tissue is found in the lymphatic 
glands, in the intestinal mucous membrane 
and elsewhere. The overgrowth of this 
tissue between nose and pharynx induces 
many other troubles. It occurs usually in 
young children, the obstructed air passages 
cutting off the supply of oxygen. The 
child breathes through the mouth—al¬ 
though mouth breathing is regarded some¬ 
times as a cause of adenoids as well as 
a result—enunciation becomes difficult. 


and deafness is of common occurrence. 
Catarrh is caused frequently by adenoids, 
and enlarged tonsils are a common accom¬ 
paniment. Any and all of the evils atten¬ 
dant upon a scanty supply of oxygen may 
result until the child becomes an invalid 
or is stunted in body and mind. Adenoids 
are removed readily by a physician, the 
operation being a simple one, from which 
a child, otherwise normal, recovers in a 
day or two. 

Adhesion. See Cohesion. 

Adiron'dacks, a group of mountains in 
northeastern New York, west of Lake 
Champlain. This mountain system is 
largely of granite formation and rises 
from an extensive plateau. Its highest 
peaks are Mount Marcy, which has an 
altitude of 5,344 feet, Mount MacIntyre 
and Skylight. The mountains are covered 
with valuable timber which is readily con¬ 
veyed to the mills by means of two rivers, 
the Hudson, flowing south, and the Riche¬ 
lieu, flowing north. The output of iron 
ore from New York State—in 1904 over 
700,000 tons—is largely a product of the 
Adirondack region. The climate of this 
district is in winter very severe, but is 
considered advantageous to those suffering 
from pulmonary troubles, and several san¬ 
itariums have been erected among these 
mountains. The state reserves a forest 
park of over 2,000,000 acres with a force 
of men to act as guides, to guard against 
fires, and to enforce game laws. The 
scenery is picturesque and beautiful, lakes 
abound, and there is no more popular re¬ 
sort for hunters, campers, and those who 
love nature and a free, wild life. 

Adjutant, a large bird of the stork 
family, so called from its erect, military 
bearing. It is a familiar bird about the 
villages of India. It has a tremendous 
capacity for eating and acts as a public 
scavenger. It can swallow a cat with ease. 
It is about five feet high and spreads its 
wings about fourteen feet. The white 
“marabou” feathers of the milliner’s store 
are plucked from the underside of its 
wings. 

Adler, Felix (1851-), a Hebrew au¬ 
thor and lecturer of the United States. 
He was born at Alzey, Germany, but the 




ADMETUS—ADONAIS 


family came to the United States in 1857. 
He was educated at Columbia College, 
from which he graduated in 1870, study¬ 
ing later in Berlin and Heidelberg. He 
was professor of Hebrew and Oriental 
literature at Cornell, 1874-1876. He then 
established in New York a religious organ¬ 
ization, called the Society of Ethical Cul¬ 
ture. Before this Society he delivered 
regular Sunday lectures. In 1877 Adler 
published Creeds and Deeds, a series of 
discourses setting forth his views. He has 
since published The Ethics of the Politi¬ 
cal Situation, The Moral Instruction 
of Children, Life and Destiny, Essen~ 
tials of Spirituality, and other works. 
Since 1902 he has filled the chair of po¬ 
litical and social ethics at Columbia. 

Admetus. See Alcestis. 

Adobe, a-do'ba, from a Spanish word 
meaning to daub or plaster. Adobes are 
sun-dried bricks made of clay, mixed 
sometimes with straw to give strength. 
The bricks made by the children of Israel 
under Egyptian taskmasters were adobe. 
The earliest buildings in the valley of the 
Euphrates were of adobe, made of the 
sticky clay found in that region. The 
walls of the Alhambra are built of red 
adobe. The natives of Arizona and New 
Mexico construct their dwellings of adobe. 
When a new house is needed or an addi¬ 
tional room, the women folks are set at 
work carrying water, and the neighbors are 
invited in. The clay of the front dooryard 
is mixed with water until it has the con¬ 
sistency of putty; it is then molded into 
bricks, about 18X9X4 inches in size. 
These are piled up in the sun to dry, and 
when thoroughly hardened, are built into 
walls. The roof is composed usually of poles 
and brush, covered with grass and earth, or 
turf, if it may be had. Adobe dwellings 
are cool and dry, two essentials in a hot 
climate. Adobe is suitable for use only 
in a practically rainless region. Heavy, 
continued rains would convert an adobe 
cottage into streaming rivulets of mud. 
Where the average rainfall is not great, 
structures built of adobe last indefinitely 
with reasonable repair; the greatest 
amount of disintegration being at the base 
of the walls during seasons of rain, al¬ 


though prolonged sand storms erode the 
surfaces. For the sake of appearance, as 
well as to aid in protecting it against 
weathering, adobe masonry is often plas¬ 
tered, the Indian women using their hands 
as trowels. The interior walls, and some¬ 
times also the borders of the windows and 
doors, are whitewashed with gypsum. 
Adobe soil covers many thousand square 
miles of the arid west. When watered, it 
is fertile. It is a limy clay loam of a 
gray-brown color, fine as flour and free 
from grit. In places adobe soil, thousands 
of feet deep, is considered a wind deposit. 
Extensive areas are covered with fine vol¬ 
canic dust which shades off into coarse soil 
like crushed coke. See Brick; Cliff 
Dwellers; Pueblo; Alamo. 

Adolescence, ad'o-les'sens, a term ap¬ 
plied to the period of transition from child¬ 
hood to adult life, extending in a general 
way from twelve to twenty-one in females 
and from fourteen to twenty-five in males. 
Development throughout this period varies 
considerably with the individual, but there 
are certain well-marked characteristics usu¬ 
ally present, the best knowm being that 
of sex unfoldment and differentiation, 
evidenced for example by the changing of 
the voice and the beginning of the growth 
of a beard in the boy. 

More valuable perhaps, but no less im¬ 
portant than the physical, are the mental 
and emotional traits of this period. It 
marks the beginning of individuality and 
usually fixes the habits and ideals of life. 
Like any transitional period, it is marked 
by unrest and instability, and is often not 
properly appreciated by parents and teach¬ 
ers as a natural condition with which to 
deal as best they may. It is but a step 
in evolution and not revolution, as many 
are wont to suppose. The great problem 
of one engaged in the guidance of youth is 
the recognition of his new impulses, in¬ 
terests and emotions, so as consistently to 
direct them into proper channels. There 
is no more comprehensive treatise on this 
phase of human development than that 
most admirable work by G. Stanley Hall, 
entitled, Adolescence, with which no true 
educator can afford to be unacquainted. 

Adonais, ad-o-na/is, a poem by Percy 


ADONIS—ADRIATIC 


Bysshe Shelley. The poem is an elegy on 
the death of Keats. The name Adonais 
was coined by Shelley, perhaps in imita¬ 
tion of an elegy on the death of Adonis by 
the classic poet Bion, a contemporary of 
Theocritus. This poem begins “I mourn 
for Adonis, beauteous Adonis is dead.” 
The first line of Shelley’s elegy is: 

I weep for Adonais—he is dead! 

This poem is regarded by critics as one 
of the three great English elegies, the 
others being Milton’s Lycidas, and Ten¬ 
nyson’s In Memoriam. While Lycidas 
surpasses it in perfection of execution, and 
In Memoriam is more profound, Adonais 
is considered by many the most beautiful. 
Shelley himself said of it, “The Adonais, 
in spite of its mysticism, is the least im¬ 
perfect of my compositions.” 

QUOTATIONS. 

Alas ! that all we loved of him should be. 

But for our grief, as if it had not been. 

And grief itself be mortal! Woe is me ! 

Whence are we, and why are we? of what scene 
The actors or spectators? Great and mean 
Meet massed in death, who lends what life must 
borrow. 

As long as skies are blue, and fields are green. 
Evening must usher night, night urge the mor¬ 
row. 

Month follow month with woe, and year wake 
year to sorrow. 

And keep thy heart light, lest it make thee sink, 
When hope has kindled hope, and lured thee to 
the brink. 

Peace, peace ! he is not dead, he doth not sleep— 
He hath awakened from the dream of life. 

Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, 

Stains the white radiance of eternity. 

See Shelley. 

Adonis, a-do'nis, in Greek mythology, 
a beautiful boy beloved by Venus (Aphro¬ 
dite). He was slain by a wild boar. Venus 
sprinkled nectar upon his blood, and there¬ 
from sprang the anemone, or wind flower. 
At the request of Venus, Zeus decreed that 
Adonis should spend half the year in the 
upper and half in the lower world. His 
death was celebrated by an autumnal, his 
resurrection by a spring, festival. Adonis 
is an oriental deity of nature, a type of the 
decay of nature in autumn and its revival 
in spring. “Beautiful as Adonis,” is a 
common expression. 

Adoption, the act of taking a stranger 
into one’s family as a son or a daughter. 


In England, where the inheritance of real 
estate is guarded very carefully, adoptions 
are not recognized by law, but in the United 
States most states provide by a statute 
for the adoption of children. A child 
thus adopted becomes, to all intents and 
purposes, a member of the family, and is 
an heir-at-law as though it were the ac¬ 
tual child of the family. 

Adrian, or Hadrian, the name of six 
popes, two of whom, Adrian IV, and 
Adrian VI are of considerable interest. 

Adrian IV was the only Englishman 
who ever occupied the papal chair. His 
English name was Nicholas Brakspere. 
He became a servant in the French mon¬ 
astery of St. Rufus, later becoming a reg¬ 
ular monk, then prior, and finally, abbot. 
In 1146, he was made cardinal bishop of 
Albano by Eugenius III. On the death 
of Anastasius IV in 1154, he was elected 
Pope. It was he who gave Ireland to 
Henry II of England. He died in 1159. 

Adrian VI was elected Pope in 1522, 
and set about correcting abuses in the 
Church. He died in 1523, with most of 
his ambitious plans unrealized. 

Adrianople, ad-ri-an-6'pl, an important 
commercial city of former European Tur¬ 
key. It was the capital of the vilayet, or 
province of Adrianople, situated on the 
Maritza River, 137 miles northwest of Con¬ 
stantinople. The most splendid Moslem 
temple extant—the mosque of the Sultan 
Selim—is in this city. Adrianople was 
founded by the Emperor Hadrian, and was 
the capital of the Ottoman empire for 
nearly a hundred years, 1361-1453. Popu¬ 
lation about 80,000. 

Adriatic (ad-re-at'ik) Sea, or Gulf of 
Venice, an arm of the Mediterranean, 
between Italy and Greece. It is 500 miles 
in length. The name is derived from the 
city of Adria, once a native port, but now 
fifteen miles inland. The coasts of the 
Adriatic near the Po are low, swampy, 
fertile, and populous. Elsewhere the Ital¬ 
ian, Turkish, and Grecian coasts are pre¬ 
cipitous and rocky. They are provided 
with few good harbors, compared with the 
coasts of the Aegean. Before the discovery 
of a route around the Cape of Good Hope, 
the Adriatic and its port, Venice, formed 


ADULTERATION 


the chief pathway of the world’s sea com¬ 
merce. See Venice; Mediterranean 
Sea. 

Adulteration, a term applied to the use 
of foreign or cheaper ingredients in the 
manufacture of articles of commerce. The 
term has acquired a wider significance in 
recent years in connection with the manu¬ 
facture and sale of foods. According to 
state and national food laws, an article 
is adulterated: 

1. If any substance has been mixed with 

it so as to lower its quality. 

2. If any substance has been substituted 

wholly or in part for this article. 

3. If any valuable constituent has been 

wholly or partially abstracted. 

4. If the article be mixed, colored, pow¬ 

dered, or stained in a manner whereby 

damage or inferiority is concealed. 

5. If it contain any added poisonous or 

harmful ingredient. 

One of the most common forms of 
adulteration is the addition of water to 
milk. To prevent souring in warm weath¬ 
er, certain antiseptics, as boric acid and 
formaldehyde, are added. Another fraud, 
which is also a form of adulteration un¬ 
der food law definitions, is the skimming 
of milk. Yellow coal-tar colors and gelatin 
have also been added to milk and cream to 
give the appearance of richness. Butter is 
adulterated chiefly by the addition of arti¬ 
ficial coloring matter, such as annato and 
coal-tar dye. Oleomargarine, a product 
made chiefly from tallow, lard, and cotton¬ 
seed oil, is sold as dairy butter. The same 
is true also of so-called renovated butter, 
a product made by melting and treating 
inferior or rancid butter in such a manner 
that, for a time at least, it appears fresh 
and sweet. Vinegar has been traditionally 
subject to adulteration. The sale of facti¬ 
tious cider vinegar, made entirely from 
white wine vinegar colored with burnt 
sugar, has been extensively carried on. 
Compounded vinegars are made by mixing 
cider vinegar in various proportions with 
white wine or distilled vinegar, and sup¬ 
plying certain deficiencies by the addition 
of molasses, glucose, or boiled cider. Enor¬ 
mous quantities of fraudulent maple syrup 
and sugar have been manufactured. These 


products have been derived only in part 
from maple sap, or, as has often been 
the case, they have been made entirely 
from raw or refined cane sugar. The req¬ 
uisite maple flavor has been imparted 
by mixing the product with an extract 
made from hickory bark. The use of so- 
called corn syrup or glucose as an adul¬ 
terant of maple syrup has been practiced 
extensively. It has been stated that in years 
past Chicago has “produced” annually a 
quantity of maple sugar and syrup equal¬ 
ing the combined products of the states 
of New York, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. 
Spices are adulterated with inert materi¬ 
als, such as sawdust, nut shells, fruit 
stones, and waste products from wheat, 
corn, rice, and other grains. The essential 
oil is sometimes partly extracted from cer¬ 
tain spices, as clove, cinnamon, and nut¬ 
meg, and in its place is substituted cot¬ 
ton-seed oil. In addition to being de¬ 
prived of a large part of its oil, mustard 
has been mixed with flour, ground flax, 
and other seeds. Ground coffee is adul¬ 
terated with chicory root, dandelion root, 
roasted beans, and cereals. Cotton-seed 
oil, tallow, and petroleum products are 
used for mixing with higher priced fats 
and oils, as lard and olive oil; glucose 
syrup is the common adulterant of mo¬ 
lasses and honey; coal-tar dyes serve as a 
mask for other adulterants; wood alcohol, 
acetanilid, and various harmful coal-tar 
products are found in adulterated drugs. 

The list of products other than foods 
and drugs which are liable to adulteration 
is also a long one. Whiting, barytes, and 
China clay are used as substitutes for 
white lead and zinc white; so-called linen 
often contains cotton, hemp, and tow; 
much that appears like silk is so-called 
artificial silk or only mercerized cotton; 
split leather is sold for calf skin, and lamb 
and other inferior leather for kid; wool 
felt is substituted for fur; imitation fur 
for the genuine, and so on. Laws against 
substituting inferior alloys for standard al¬ 
loys of gold and silver have been enacted 
in some states. The enactment of laws to 
prevent adulteration of fertilizers has ex¬ 
tended to all states using fertilizers in con¬ 
siderable quantities. The Maine experi- 


ADVENTISTS—AEGEAN SEA 


ment station inspects field and garden 
seeds with reference both to vitality and 
purity, and the stations in several states 
exercise a control over the insecticides and 
fungicides on the market. Some states, as 
Minnesota and North Dakota, have laws 
designed to prevent fraud in linseed oil 
and paints. 

Most of the food laws first enacted af¬ 
fected only dairy products; later these 
laws were amended, or new laws were en¬ 
acted, so as to include all articles of food 
and drink. The enforcement of food laws 
iu many states devolves on a food commis¬ 
sion, but in a number of states it is in the 
hands of the experiment station or the 
board of health. The National Food and 
Drugs Act was passed and became a law 
in June, 1906. This law renders more ef¬ 
fective the state laws by checking the in¬ 
terstate shipment of fraudulent products. 

Julius Hortvet. 

See Pure Food Law. ■ 

Adventists, Second Adventists, or 
Millerites, a sect founded by William 
Miller in 1831, on a belief in the speedy 
coming of Christ to reign on the earth. 
The idea of Christ’s second coming is not 
original with the Adventists. The sect bap¬ 
tizes by immersion. One branch of the 
church called Seventh Day Adventists ob¬ 
serves Saturday, or the seventh day, the 
Hebrew Sabbath, as a day of rest. The six 
branches of the church have in all about 
2,283 churches, 1,505 ministers, and 92,505 
communicants. See Sabbath. 

Advertisement, an announcement in 
print, usually of wants, or of goods for 
sale. The earliest newspaper advertising 
in this country is said to have appeared 
in the New England Weekly Journal, pub¬ 
lished in Boston in 1728. Announcements 
relative to books, importations of coffee, 
runaway slaves, sales of negro girls, a 
school for negroes, and the departure and 
arrival of ships are to be found in its 
advertising columns. Advertisements were 
considered beneath the dignity of the earli¬ 
er periodicals. Magazine advertisements 
began with Scribner's Monthly in 1870. 
The custom was soon followed by other 
magazines. 

One desiring to place an advertisement 


in a number of papers finds it advisable, 
at the present time, to make arrangements 
through some advertising agency, not only 
to save labor of corresponding, and the 
payment of numerous small bills, but as a 
matter of economy. Agencies placing a 
large amount of advertising are naturally 
able to make advantageous contracts. A 
bulletin published by the United States 
Census Bureau states that in 1905 $145,- 
000,000 was paid for advertisements in 
American newspapers and in magazines; 
$15,000,000 for cards, folders, and postals 
of an artistic nature; $11,250,000 for the 
signboard advertising that shuts off the 
traveler’s view along our lines of rail¬ 
road, and $2,000,000 a year for street car 
advertising. 

Commercial competition has become so 
keen, and the love of the American people 
for a change and for something novel has 
become so marked that it is well nigh im¬ 
possible to carry on a prosperous business 
of any sort without advertising. The large 
city dailies require to take in from $20,000 
to $40,000 a week from advertising. 
Single issues have been known to earn 
$30,000 in one day. The large New York 
dailies ask $70 a column for space. A 
page in a leading magazine costs from 
$200 to $500 per issue. John Wanama- 
ker, the famous merchant, is said to have 
paid the Philadelphia dailies from $50,- 
000 to $75,000 a year apiece for page ad¬ 
vertisements. Ayer & Son of Lowell, Mas¬ 
sachusetts, are said to spend $600,000 a 
year in advertising their remedies. 

Aeacus, e'a-kus. See Aegina. 

Aegean Sea, an arm of the Mediter¬ 
ranean situated between Greece and Asia 
Minor. It is bounded on the north by 
that portion of Turkey known to the an¬ 
cients as Thrace and Macedonia. The 
Aegean receives the waters of the Black 
Sea through the Dardanelles. The coast 
is much broken by long promontories and 
by correspondingly long arms of the sea. 
Good harbors abound. The sea is studded 
with islands. The ancients who dwelt on 
the adjacent lands had a great variety of 
productions to offer in trade. The possi¬ 
bility of making short voyages from port 
to port, or from island to island, was fa- 


AEGINA—AEGIS 


vorable to early navigation, when the ship 
captain had no compass save the pole star. 
Under these circumstances, it is not sur¬ 
prising that the Aegean was the cradle of 
European commerce. The Aegean is also 
the sea of all seas prominent in early Eu¬ 
ropean art, literature, and history. It is 
not risking much to say that the earliest 
European navy sailed the Aegean. The 
Greeks called the sea the Archipelago or 
chief sea, and it was the chief sea of the 
world to them. The name has been ex¬ 
tended to other seas, but with a changed 
meaning. The term is applied to seas, not 
on account of their importance, but be¬ 
cause, like the original Archipelago, they 
contain a profusion of islands. The fish¬ 
eries of the Aegean are considerable. The 
islands produce wheat, wine, olive oil, figs, 
raisins, honey, wax, cotton, and silk. The 
inhabitants are skillful divers for coral 
and sponges. Bands of expert divers from 
the Aegean frequent our coasts and engage 
in the sponge fisheries of Florida. 

Aegina, e-jl'na, in Greek mythology, 
the daughter of Asopus, the river god. 
Zeus carried Aegina away to a rocky is¬ 
land in the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean 
Sea. Here their son Aeacus was born. 
As the island had no other inhabitants, 
Zeus transformed the ants of the place 
into men, calling them Myrmidons. Aea¬ 
cus grew to manhood and ruled these peo¬ 
ple. He was renowned throughout Greece 
for justice and piety, and at death be¬ 
came one of the three judges of Hades. 
The island was named Aegina in honor 
of the nymph. See Myrmidons. 

Aegir, a'j ir, in old Norse mythology, the 
god of the ocean. By race, Aegir was a 
giant. lie has been called the god of the 
stormy sea, but he seems usually to per¬ 
sonify the more propitious characteristics 
of the waters. Other names for him are 
Gymir and Hler. Aegir entertained the 
gods at harvest time and brewed their ale. 

Aeginetan (ej-i-ne'tan) Marbles, a fa¬ 
mous collection of marble statuary from 
the Greek island of Aegina. This island 
lies in the Aegean Sea, twenty miles off 
shore from the port of Athens. It is 
about nine miles in length and has a pres¬ 
ent population of about 7,000. At one 


time Aegina was the most important and 
the wealthiest commercial city of Greece. 
The famous naval victory over the Per¬ 
sians at Salamis was won largely through 
the prowess of the thirty ships of Aegina, 
though that did not protect the city from 
the growing power and jealousy of Athens, 
The temples and other public buildings of 
Aegina were on a scale of magnificence, 
still the admiration of the excavator and 
archaeologist. The ruins of seventeen 
Christian churches show also that the 
island was the seat of a flourishing civili¬ 
zation early in the Christian era. 

Many statues and other prizes of classi¬ 
cal art have been dug out of the ruins of 
the old city and carried away. A collection 
known as the Aeginetan Marbles is pre¬ 
served in the royal art museum of Munich. 
A large room known as the Aeginetan Hall 
is given to the display. Many of the best 
specimens are from a noble temple of Zeus, 
or, as some think, of Athena, considered 
second only to the Parthenon in symmetry 
and beauty of proportion. The Danish 
sculptor Thorwaldsen spent no little time 
in studying these statues. He used plas¬ 
ter of Paris to replace fragments that had 
been broken off and lost. There are sev¬ 
enteen large groups representing events 
in the siege of Troy and in the lives of 
Hercules, Athena, Achilles, Ajax, etc. 
This famous statuary fairly rivals the El¬ 
gin Marbles from the Parthenon. The 
Aeginetan Marbles, however, are somewhat 
older, dating, it is believed, from about 
475 B. C. 

See Elgin Marbles; Munich; Sculp¬ 
ture. 

Aegis, e'jis, the shield of Jupiter. 
Among ancient writers the word some¬ 
times designates the rushing stormcloud, 
enveloping the thunderbolt which was 
Jupiter’s special weapon. Others apply 
the word to the skin of the goat, Amal- 
thea, which Zeus used as defensive armor 
in his w r ar with the Titans. Later writers 
regard the aegis both as a buckler and 
as a breastplate. In ancient art it fre¬ 
quently appears as a sort of mantle fringed 
with serpents, worn over the breast or 
left arm to serve as a defense in time of 
need. Jupiter permitted both Apollo and 


AEGISTHUS—AEOLUS 


Minerva to wear the aegis. The word 
aegis is used figuratively for any protective 
power or influence. In the Iliad, Homer 
(Bryant’s translation) describes Minerva 
prepared for conflict: 

Her shoulder bore 

The dreadful aegis, with its shaggy brim ' 
Bordered with Terror. There was Strife, and 
there 

Was Fortitude, and there was fierce Pursuit, 
And there the Gorgon’s head, a ghastly sight, 
Deformed and dreadful, and a sign of woe 
When borne by Jupiter. 

Aegisthus. See Clytemnestra. 

Aeneas, e-ne'as, a legendary Trojan 
chief, second only to Hector in the de¬ 
fense of Troy. He was the son of Anchises 
and the goddess Venus. His wife Creusa 
was the daughter of Priam the king. Their 
one child was Ascanius. Virgil chose Aene¬ 
as for the hero of his chief work, calling 
it the Aeneid. According to this writer, 
Aeneas escaped from the sack of Trpy. 
After performing prodigies of valor he 
took his son Ascanius by the hand, and, 
bearing his aged father Anchises and his 
household gods on his shoulders, bade 
Creusa follow. In the confusion Creusa 
was lost and was never heard of again; 
but Aeneas made his way from the burning 
city to the shelter of Mount Ida, where 
he was joined by trusty companions. As 
soon as the times were propitious, twenty 
ships were built, and the remnant of the 
Trojans set out under his leadership to 
find a new home in the West. In the 
course of their wanderings, the aged 
Anchises died. Driven by a tempest to 
the coast of Africa, Dido, the queen of 
Carthage, received him kindly, and be¬ 
sought him to remain as her husband. 
Warned by the gods, however, Aeneas set 
sail, and the unhappy and deserted Dido 
put an end to her life on a funeral pile. 
Finally, Virgil would have us believe, 
Aeneas arrived at Italy and engaged in 
local wars, went down to the lower world 
to see his father, returned and settled in 
Latium, and married Lavinia, the king’s 
daughter. He thus became the ancestor 
of the kings of Alba Longa, and of Romu¬ 
lus and Remus, the founders of ancient 
Rome. See Virgil; Troy; Dido; 
Aeneid. 


Aeneid, e-ne'id, The, the .great epic 
poem of the Romans. It is ranked with 
the world’s great epics. It was written 
by Virgil during the eleven years from 
30 B. C. to 19 B. C., and consists of twelve 
books. Six of these treat of the wander¬ 
ings and adventures of Aeneas and his fol¬ 
lowers after the Trojan War; and six 
treat of their struggles in the settlement 
of Italy. In the matter of composition, 
the Aeneid is the product of one mind. 
In that respect it may be classed with 
Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy, 
rather than with such composite epics as 
the Iliad or Beowulf. The Aeneid was 
translated into English by Dryden. The 
work was long considered his greatest glo¬ 
ry, but in reality Dryden’s translation im¬ 
perfectly represents the original. See 
Epic; Aeneas; Virgil; Troy; Dido. 

EXTRACTS. 

I fear the Greeks even when they offer gifts. 
He runs on Scylla, wishing to avoid Charybdis. 
In heavenly minds can such resentments dwell? 

Not unacquainted with distress, I have learned 

to succor the unfortunate. 

Aeolian (e-6'le-an) Harp, a stringed 
musical instrument played upon by the 
wind. Aeolus was the Grecian god of the 
winds, hence the name. A regular Aeolian 
harp is made by stretching eight to fifteen 
catgut strings or fine wires of equal length 
over a thin, fibrous wooden sounding box. 
The strings pass over low bridges at 
each end. The box should be adapted 
to the width of a window. It may be 
placed on a window sill with the sash 
raised sufficiently to allow the wind to 
play on the strings. The wind causes the 
strings to vibrate as wholes and in sec¬ 
tions, producing sweetly mingled harmo¬ 
nies that swell and fall with the passing 
breeze, like a far off orchestra. Boys make 
what is to them a very satisfactory sub¬ 
stitute for an Aeolian harp by stretching 
threads across long narrow apertures 
through which the wind blows. See Harp. 

Aeolus, e'o-lus, in ancient mythology, 
the father and god of the winds. He is 
represented as the son of Poseidon. His 
kingdom was the Aeolian isles, where he 
kept the winds shut up in a vast cave, 
lest they sweep earth and sky away. Sail- 


AERATION—AESCULAPIUS 


ors were dependent upon Aeolus, who was 
able to set free a favoring breeze that 
brought their ship to port, or to let slip a 
devastating hurricane. Some located this 
home of the winds in Stromboli, where the 
rumblings of the volcano were regarded 
as the mutterings of the winds struggling 
to go free. The following passage from 
Conington’s translation of the Aeneid 
gives the gist of the legend: 

Here Aeolus, in cavern vast, 

With bolt and barrier fetters fast 
Rebellious storm and howling blast. 

They with the rock’s reverberant roar 
Chafe blustering round their prison door; 
He, throned on high, the sceptre sways, 
Controls their moods, their wrath allays. 

Break but that sceptre, sea and land, 

And heaven’s ethereal deep, 

Before them they would whirl like sand. 

And through the void air sweep. 

Aeration. See Transpiration. 
Aerolites. See Meteors. 

Aeroplane. See Airship. 

Aeschines, es'ki-nes (387-314 B. C.), 
a celebrated Greek orator. A native of 
Athens and rival of Demosthenes. In 
early life he was an opponent of Philip 
of Macedon, but was afterward won over. 
Aeschines ended his life as a teacher of 
rhetoric at Rhodes. Three orations are 
extant. A dignified statue of Aeschines 
was found amid the ruins of Herculaneum. 
It represents the orator standing quietly 
wrapped in his mantle. This statue is 
preserved in the National Museum at Na¬ 
ples. 

Aeschylus, es'ki-lus (525-456 B. C.), 
one of the three great tragic poets of 
Greece. He composed over seventy trage¬ 
dies and won the annual prize for excel¬ 
lence thirteen times. Many of these works 
have been lost; seven remain— The Per¬ 
sians, The Seven against Tliehes, The Sup¬ 
pliants, Prometheus Bound, Agamemnon, 
The Choephori, and The Eumenides. 
When a successful rival finally appeared in 
Sophocles, Aeschylus is said to have retired 
in mortification to Sicily, where an idle 
story runs that an eagle mistook his bald 
head for a stone, and letting fall a tor¬ 
toise upon it to break the shell, caused 
the poet’s death. Aeschylus was a native 
of Attica and was of aristocratic parent¬ 
age. When a young man, he took part 


in the struggle of Greece led by Athens 
against the Persian power. He distin¬ 
guished himself for bravery in the battles 
of Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea. He 
was much interested in public affairs, and 
understood the significance of the Persian 
defeats which made Greece, with Athens 
at its head, the leading power in the world. 
He was opposed to an oligarchy, and 
likewise feared the results of unbridled 
popular rule. The following passage, 
translated from the Eumenides, advises the 
citizens of Athens to steer between an oli¬ 
garchy and anarchy; 

Therefore, O citizens, I bid ye bow 

In awe to this command, Let no man live 

Uncurbed by law nor curbed by tyranny, 

Nor banish ye the monarchy of Awe 
Beyond the walls; untouched by fear divine 
No man doth justice in the world of men. 
Therefore in purity and holy dread 
Stand and revere. 

In the following quotation from the 
Americana reference is made to the strict 
rules which controlled the form of dra¬ 
matic productions among the ancients: 

It is remarkable that in Aeschylus and Sopho¬ 
cles no deficiency of dramatic interest attends 
this severity of form. Even in the earliest ex¬ 
amples. the metrical arrangements are consum¬ 
mate. The magnificent poetical quality of 
Aeschylus, the sense of overmastering fate with 
which he manages to charge all his drama, and 
the perfect humanity of Sophocles relieve their 
work entirely from the charge of sterility which 
has been brought against more modern imita¬ 
tions of their form. 

See Drama; Euripides; Sophocles. 
Aesculapius, es-ku-la'pi-us, in classic 
mythology, the god of medicine. He was 
the son of Apollo. He had wondrous 
skill in the healing art. On complaint of 
Pluto that mortals were prevented by him 
from dying, and that Hades was becoming 
depopulated, Zeus slew Aesculapius with 
a thunderbolt, but at Apollo’s request 
placed him among the stars. In art he 
is represented usually as an aged, bearded 
man carrying a staff, around which a ser¬ 
pent, an emblem of wisdom, wraps its 
coils. His temples were placed usually 
without the city walls in some healthful 
spot, possibly near a fountain. The sick 
were wont to sacrifice a cock or goat to 
Aesculapius. In case of recovery a votive 
tablet recording the cure was hung up in 


AESIR—AFGHANISTAN 


the temple. Physicians are sometimes 
called “disciples of Aesculapius.” In Ho¬ 
mer Aesculapius is not spoken of as a god, 
but simply as “the blameless physician.” 

Aesir, a'sir, in Norse mythology, a col¬ 
lective name for the great gods. There 
were twelve of these gods and each had 
a throne in Gladsheim. Odin’s throne 
was also there, but overtopped those of 
the twelve Aesir. The name Aesir is some¬ 
times used collectively for all the Scandi¬ 
navian gods, thirty-eight in number. See 
Gladsheim ; Odin. 

Aeson, e'son. See Jason. 

Aesop, e'sop (620-564 B. C.), a Greek 
writer of fables. The accounts of his life 
and writings rest on a slender foundation. 
Various regions contended for the honor 
of his birth. According to some accounts, 
while still young he was brought to 
Athens as a slave. On obtaining his free¬ 
dom, he took up his residence at the court 
of Croesus, by whom he was employed as 
an ambassador at Delphi. According to 
one account, Aesop was entrusted by Croe¬ 
sus with the duty of distributing a sum 
of money at Delphi. Failing to do this 
satisfactorily, he was thrown headlong 
over a precipice. As a punishment a pes¬ 
tilence fell upon the city. No manuscript 
or other evidence of Aesop’s writings has 
been preserved. He may have been merely 
a story teller. He may not have lived at 
all. During the brilliant period of Athe¬ 
nian literature, however, a collection of 
pithy anecdotes was known as “Aesop’s 
Fables.” These fables were well known 
to the Romans. They have been trans¬ 
lated into many languages. A scholarly 
edition published in 1810 in Germany 
contains two hundred thirty-one fables. 
Many of them seem to be mere variations 
of similar fables extant among the Ara¬ 
bians, Hindus, Persians, and even Chinese. 
“Eastern Fables” would be quite as appro¬ 
priate a name. “ ‘What a dust I do raise,* 
said the fly as he sat on the axletree of the 
chariot,” is one of the sayings attributed 
to Aesop. See Lokman; La Fontaine. 
Aetna, Mount. See Etna, Mount. 
Afghanistan, af-gan-Ts-tan', the land of 
the Afghans, a lofty plateau of Central 
Asia. The area is placed at 250,000 


square miles, about three times that of Min¬ 
nesota. Afghanistan lies east of Persia, 
from which country it may be entered by 
means of tedious caravan routes, leading 
ankle deep through burning sands; or the 
traveler coming by way of India may 
spend weeks climbing upward through the 
stony defiles of the Himalayas. For near¬ 
ly a century this country was a bone of 
contention between the British authorities 
on the south and Russian influence on the 
north. 

In a treaty negotiated between Great 
Britain and Afghanistan November 22, 
1921, Great Britain recognized the inde¬ 
pendence of Afghanistan and the latter 
agreed not to receive Russian diplomats. 
The treaty provided for an exchange of 
diplomatic representatives between London 
and Kabul. Abdul Hadi, a noted Kabul 
journalist, was appointed first Afgan min¬ 
ister to the court of St. James, and Major 
J. H. Humphreys, of the Indian army, 
was appointed minister at Kabul. This 
treaty removed a long standing grievance 
from the Afghan government which had 
resented being compelled to negotiate with 
the British government at Calcutta instead 
of with London direct. 

The swarthy Afghans are a haughty, 
warlike, treacherous, bargaining race of 
hillsmen of white blood. They are akin 
to the Persians, who also make up a con¬ 
siderable part of the 5,000,000 population. 
Save certain Tartar elements the religion 
of the people is Mohammedan. The govern¬ 
ment is rapacious, arbitrary, and cruel, but 
it fits in with local ideas of religion, and 
any change would be regarded with fanatic 
suspicion. The ruler is called the Amir. 
He resides at Kabul, a town of 70,000 peo¬ 
ple. Afghanistan is called a buffer state 
because it protects British India from 
Russia. 

Travelers give various pictures of the 
country. One describes bare mountains, 
sandy wastes, dried up mountain torrents, 
glaring sun, and sand storms. Another 
speaks of eternal snowcaps on the moun¬ 
tains, desolate gray landscapes, blizzards, 
and the reign of winter. Another speaks 
of fierce mountain tribesmen, assassinations, 
highway robbery, poverty, starvation, a 


AFRICA 


lean and hungry land, and slaves toiling 
for hard masters. Others, again, speak of 
goats on the mountain slopes, waters 
guided along channels to irrigate fruitful 
meadows, gardens, orchards, and fields. 
The picturesque Arab-like Afghan who 
rides, fights, and trades; his caravan 
routes, trading towns, looms, shawls, and 
merchandise, attract the attention of oth¬ 
ers. No doubt the mountains are rich 
in minerals. Copper, iron, lead, and gold 
are obtained in small quantities. Lapis 
lazuli and other precious stones are found. 
Wheat, barley, and peas are sown in the 
fall and reaped in early summer. Rice, 
millet, and Indian corn are planted in the 
spring and gathered in the fall. Irri¬ 
gated orchards produce apples, pears, al¬ 
monds, peaches, quinces, plums, apricots, 
pomegranates, figs, and mulberries in 
abundance. Fresh, preserved, and dried 
fruits form a considerable part of the food 
of the people. American orchards and 
gardens are indebted to Afghanistan for 
choice species of fruit trees and ornamen¬ 
tal shrubs. Fruits, silks, felts, rugs, car¬ 
pets, musk, asafoetida, castor oil, madder, 
and indigo are for sale, as well as spices, 
wool, cattle, hides, tobacco, and tea. At 
present, merchandise is carried by means 
of horses and camels, but railroads are 
entering the country by way of Russia, 
Persia, and India. 

See Asia. 

Africa, a grand division of the eastern 
hemisphere extending to the southwest. 
1 ike South America, it is a large penin¬ 
sula. It is joined to the Asiatic mainland 
by the Isthmus of Suez, only eighty-seven 
miles in width. In outline Africa resem¬ 
bles South America. It tapers to a point 
at the south. A broad extension north of 
the equator gives the map a leg of mut¬ 
ton shape easily remembered by the school¬ 
boy. The entire coast is remarkably regu¬ 
lar, and may be drawn with easy curves, 
without a single deep gulf or bay to break 
the coast line. The entire shore line is 
18,400 miles in length. The difference be¬ 
tween the actual coast line and the short¬ 
est possible coast for the given area is 
less than that for any other grand division. 
Madagascar is the only large island. 


Physical Configuration. If we ex¬ 
cept Australia, Africa has a more regu¬ 
lar and even surface than any other grand 
division. A narrow fringe of low land 
runs around the coast; but in places, as 
at Cape Town and elsewhere, even this 
footing is crowded off into the ocean by 
precipitous sea walls. In general, the sur¬ 
face of the land is an elevated plateau. 
The Congo basin divides Africa into two 
parts. The region of the Sahara on the 
northwest lies at an elevation seldom, if 
ever, exceeding 2,000 feet. The rest of 
Africa seldom sinks below 2,000 feet in 
altitude. The average altitude of Africa 
is 4,000 feet. The principal mountain 
ranges are two. The Atlas Mountains 
run east and west opposite the Strait of 
Gibraltar,—greatest height 14,000 feet. 
The eastern highlands begin with the 
mountains of Abyssinia and continue with 
wide gaps southward to the vicinity of the 
Cape of Good Hope. In the Abyssinian 
region the highest peak is 19,000 feet 
above the sea. In the south the greatest 
altitude does not exceed 10,000 feet. Writ¬ 
ers speak of a rift valley, a gigantic crack 
in the surface, occupied for the greater 
part of its course by the Nile River and 
the large lakes in which that river has 
its sources. It is along this valley that 
the “Cape to Cairo” railway is building. 
A second rift, parallel to the first named, 
lies between Abyssinia and the sea. An¬ 
cient volcanic cones, one of which is still 
active at times, may be found in these rifts. 

Lakes and Rivers. Of lakes, the 
largest are found in the great rift, 2,000 
miles from the Mediterranean. The Ni¬ 
ger, the Congo, the Nile with its tribu¬ 
taries, and shorter streams, as the Orange 
and the Senegal, carry nearly all the wa¬ 
ter of Africa ultimately to the Atlantic 
Ocean. The sole African river of volume 
emptying into the Indian Ocean is the 
Zambezi. 

d emperature. Africa lies so evenly 
balanced on the two sides of the equator 
that it has less variety of temperature than 
any other grand division. Traveling 
from the equator northward or southward 
the tropical heat indeed moderates, but if 
we exclude certain elevated regions which, 



1. Orang-Utan. 2. Gibbon. 3. 
rel. 7. Malay Boar. 8. Indian 
Chinese Pheasant. 13. Tiger. 


ASIA 

House Monkey. 4. Flying Lemur. 5. Fruit Bat. 6. Malabar Squir- 
Elephant. 9. Hornbill. 10. Argus Pheasant. 11. Jungle Fowl. 12. 
14. Dwarf Musk Deer. 15. Gavial. 10. Tree Shrew. 17. Python. 


AFRICA 

1 Gorilla. 2. Chimpanzee. 3. Mandrill. 4. Giraffe. 5. Koodoo. 6. Lion. 7. Hippopotamus. 8. 
Elephant. 9. Wart Hog. 10. Aye Aye. 11. Ruffed Lemur. 12. Banana Bird 13, Gray Parrot. 
14. Guinea Fowl. 15. Ostrich. 16. Shorthead Toad. 17. Chameleon. 18. Hyra*. 




















AFRICA 


by way of contrast, are delightfully cool, 
Africa as a whole is decidedly torrid. The 
variation in rainfall is extreme. The most 
northerly region, that of the Atlas Moun¬ 
tains, is well watered. The vegetation of 
this region includes the cork oak, fig, olive, 
vine, and small grains. The brilliant 
dowers of this region make it a paradise 
for botanists. 

The Great Desert. The Sahara is 
the African end of a large desert region, 
the greatest in the world, reaching from 
the Atlantic eastward across Africa and 
two-thirds of Asia. Save where inter¬ 
rupted by the Nile and by oases, it is 
a dreary waste of rock and sand. Co¬ 
pious rains on the distant mountains sink 
into the earth and reappear far out in the 
desert in the form of springs, around 
which groves of dense green date palms 
spring up,—the grateful oases of the trav¬ 
eler. The valley of the Nile with its 
peculiar vegetation and animals crosses 
the eastern end of the region. 

Equatorial Africa. The equatorial 
region from the Gulf of Guinea to the 
great rift is a region of heavy rains and 
dense forests. The waters are full of 
crocodiles and hippopotamuses. The for¬ 
ests are the home of the baboons and man¬ 
like apes and huge serpents. The ele¬ 
phant, once abundant, has been all but 
exterminated for the sake of its ivory 
tusks. 

The Prairie Region. Extending from 
the Atlantic eastward to Abyssinia, quite 
around the forest region, and back to the 
Atlantic again, like a huge horseshoe, is 
a savanna or well-watered prairie region. 
This is the home of the solitary baobab 
tree and of luxuriant grasses. Giraffes, 
antelopes, gnus, zebras, and quaggas feed 
in the open parks. The savanna region 
is the home of the lion, the leopard, the 
hyena, and the jackal. Between the sa¬ 
vannas and the Sahara is a semi-arid belt 
which reappears in the eastern angle of 
Africa and divides South Africa with the 
savannas. If one were to travel in a 
straight line south from Algiers to Cape 
Town, he would pass through shifting 
scenery. Leaving the shipping in the har¬ 
bor and the city with its white walls and 


round-topped mosques, the traveler would 
journey between fields, orchards, and 
vineyards and through palm groves, until 
the blue Mediterranean lay far in the rear 
and he found himself threading the Atlas 
Mountains. Once over the slope, the coun¬ 
try becomes dryer and the vegetation scan¬ 
tier. At the southern foot, thorny camel’s 
shrubs or acacia bushes grow in clumps, 
while the scouring wind whirls the sand 
in eddies between them. Farther south 
from the mountains all signs of vegetation 
cease. For a thousand miles the eye would 
rest on a dreary waste of rocks and drift¬ 
ing sand without sign of life, save now 
and then a caravan trail marked by the 
accumulated bones of 2,000 years, and 
here and there a welcome oasis with its 
springs and palm groves, and the tents 
and flocks of the picturesque Arabs. Hold¬ 
ing still a southward course across the 
Tropic of Cancer, the traveler would en¬ 
ter the fringe of an occasional shower 
from the equatorial regions. Clumps of 
thorny plants and palms would become 
more and more numerous until he encoun¬ 
tered fruitful, grassy, flowery savannas, 
with herds of antelopes; then deep, equa¬ 
torial forests and the majestic river Con¬ 
go. South of the forests, the savannas 
again, and another region of stinted vege¬ 
tation lead to the grassy upland of the 
Cape region. 

Population. Roughly speaking, a line 
drawn from the Atlantic Ocean, along the 
southern border of the Sahara region, to 
Abyssinia, then dropping abruptly south 
to the Indian Ocean, separates the white 
people from the black. This division into 
races is based on the profile, the shape of 
the head, hair, build, language, and aspect, 
rather than on the complexion. The Ber¬ 
bers, Arabs, Egyptians, Abyssinians, and 
the coast tribes of Somaliland are of the 
white race. Immediately south of the 
Arab country a broad belt of territory, 
called by the Arabs the country of the 
Sudan or the blacks, runs westward from 
Abyssinia to the Atlantic. It is the re¬ 
gion in which the Senegambian and Guinea 
negroes live. This is the region of un¬ 
told atrocities perpetrated by merciless, 
marauding Arab chiefs and greedy Cau- 


AFRICA 


casian slavers. The ancestors of the negro 
population of the New World came chief¬ 
ly from this region. The region immedi¬ 
ately on the equator and southward is 
occupied by various negro tribes known 
collectively as Bantus. The extreme south¬ 
western corner of the continent near Cape 
Town is the home of the degraded Bush¬ 
men and Hottentots. They are classified 
as black people, but are not negroes. None 
of the African peoples have shown capaci¬ 
ty for holding together in organized gov¬ 
ernments. The Arabs, Somali, and Abys- 
sinians are not without bravery, but are 
not natural rulers of themselves or of 
others. Naturally, the conditions in 
Africa have changed but slowly. In the 
interior portions, for instance, slave 
traffic is still carried on. But under the 
influence of Europeans, conditions are 
gradually changing, as well as the customs. 

Population. Africa’s population is ap¬ 
proximately 140,000,000, divided roughly, 
but not equally, into white and black. 
Thus “African” is not a synonym of 
“negro” in the strict sense. The African 
whites are not, however, white when 
judged by European standards; they have 
been burned for too many centuries by the 
tropic sun to appear really white. The 
difference between white and black, there¬ 
fore, is based upon the shape of the head, 
the profile, stature, hair and language, and 
not on the complexion. The white Africans 
live north and east of the Sahara; the 
blacks to the south of the desert, with a 
mixed race occupying the borderland be¬ 
tween. 

Just south of the white peoples’ country 
is the Sudan, inhabited by the most north¬ 
erly and the blackest of the true negroes. 
In this region the slave traders operated, 
and almost all the negroes in North Amer¬ 
ica are descended from Sudan negroes. 
The Bantu country begins immediately 
south of the Sudan and just north of the 
equator. The Bantus are lighter colored 
negroes than the Sudanese, and are bound 
together by the ties of language only, since 
their physical aspect varies from very 
small to very large. The Bantu country 
extends southward over the remainder of 
Africa, embracing all except the south¬ 


western corner, the home of the Hottentots 
and Bushmen. The Bushmen and Hotten¬ 
tots are not negroes, both having a yellow¬ 
ish rather than a black skin, and speaking 
a language of their own. 

About sixty per cent of the African pop¬ 
ulation still adhere to old heathenish super¬ 
stitions, worshipping demons and fetishes, 
and indulging in wild and terrible rites. 

Political Divisions. As a result of 
the World War, the political geography of 
Africa has undergone considerable change. 
The former German colonies have been 
put under the mandatory rule of the Pow¬ 
ers, and Egypt is now numbered among the 
independent states. The other indepen¬ 
dent states are Abyssinia, Liberia and, 
nominally, Morocco. The latter is really 
a French protectorate, with Spain controll¬ 
ing a strip along the Mediterranean. Italy 
changed the name of the former Turkish 
vilayets of Tripoli and Cyrenaica to the 
single name of Libya. The Union of South 
Africa is mandatory for the former German 
South-West Africa, which has been re¬ 
named South-West Protectorate. Togoland 
was divided between France and Great 
Britain. France is mandatory for Kam- 
erun, a small portion of which was trans¬ 
ferred to British Nigeria. Britain is man¬ 
datory for German East Africa, now called 
Tanganyika Territory. A small portion of 
German East Africa, however, was added to 
Portuguese East Africa, and the greater 
part of the provinces of Ruanda and 
Urundi were added to Belgian Congo. 
Thus, by considering territory under the 
mandate of a Power as in the Power’s 
possession, it is found that Africa is ap¬ 


portioned as follows: 

Great Britain, square miles .4,364,000 

France, square miles .4,200,000 

Belgium, square miles. 930,000 

Portugal, square miles . 788,000 

Italy, square miles . 650,000 

Abyssinia, square miles. 350,000 

Spain, square miles. 140,000 

Liberia, square miles. 40,000 


These figures give the total area of 
Africa as 11,462,000 square miles, which 
is a close approximation to accuracy. 
Independent— 

Abyssinia, 

Egypt, 

Liberia, 










AGAMEMNON—AGASSIZ 


Morocco. 

Under British Control or Ownership— 
Togoland, North Half, 

Ascension Island, 

Tanganyika Territory, 

Basutoland, 

Bechuanaland Protectorate, 

Kenya Colony, 

Uganda, 

Zanzibar, 

Mauritius, 

Nyasaland, 

Rhodesia, 

St. Helena, 

Seychelles, 

Somaliland Protectorate, 

Swaziland, 

Nigeria, 

Kamerun, 

Gambia, 

Gold Coast, 

Ashanti, 

Sierra Leone, 

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 

Union of South Africa, 

Cape of Good Hope, 

Natal, 

The Transvaal, 

Orange Free State, 

Southwest Africa. 

Under French Control— 

Algeria, 

French Congo, 

Kamerun, 

Madagascar, 

Mayotte and the Comoro Islands, 

Reunion, 

Somali Coast, 

West Africa and The Sahara, 

Senegal, 

Guinea, 

Ivory Coast, 

Dahomey, 

French Sudan, 

Mauritania, 

Togoland, South Half. 

Under Italian Control— 

Somaliland, 

Eritrea, 

Tripoli. 

Under Portuguese Control— 

Cape Verde Islands, 

Guinea, 

Prince’s and St. Thomas’ Islands, 

Angola, 

Mozambique. 

Under Belgian Control— 

Belgian Congo. 

Bibliography. Livingstone, Travels; 
Stanley, Through the Dark Continent; Du 
Chaillu’s volumes on Africa; A. Knox, The 
Climate of Africa; E. H. L. Schwartz, The 
Dessication of Africa; Rosita Forbes, The 
Backbone of Africa, and T. Roosevelt, 
African Game Trails. 


Agamemnon, ag-a-mem'non, in Greek 
legendary history, king of Mycenae, “rich 
in gold,” situated midway between Athens 
and Sparta. He was the brother of Mene- 
laus, king of Sparta, whose wife, Helen, 
was carried away by Paris, son of Priam, 
king of Troy. As a sort of overlord, Ag¬ 
amemnon was a central figure, but not the 
hero of the band of chieftains who united 
to avenge the wrong done Menelaus. The 
ten years’ siege of Troy, the death of 
Priam, Paris, Hector, and the final taking 
of the city by the introduction of men 
within the gates by the stratagem of con¬ 
cealing them in a huge wooden horse, are 
told in the Iliad of Homer and the Aeneid 
of Virgil. On Agamemnon’s return from 
the Trojan war he was slain by his wife 
Clytemnestra and her guilty lover. Ag¬ 
amemnon is the title of one of Aeschylus’ 
tragedies. 

Agassiz, ag'a-see, Alexander (1835- 
1910), an American naturalist, the only 
son of Louis Agassiz. He was educated 
at Harvard, and after graduating in 1849 
he studied engineering and chemistry. In 
1866 he became superintendent of the Cal¬ 
umet and Hecla copper mines in the re¬ 
gion of Lake Superior. He developed 
these deposits until they became the most 
valuable copper mines in the world, Agas¬ 
siz himself acquiring a fortune by this 
success. In 1874 he was appointed curator 
of the museum at Cambridge, Massachu¬ 
setts, and from this time devoted himself 
and his fortune to zoological research. 
Among other important tasks he assisted in 
arranging the collections made during the 
exploring expedition of the Challenger. 
He was a member of the National Academy 
of Sciences and of many scientific societies 
of America and Europe. He is the author, 
with Mrs. Elizabeth Agassiz, of Seaside 
Studies in Natural History, Marine 
Animals of Massachusetts Bay, and of the 
fifth volume of Contributions to the 
Natural History of the United States, 
which work his father had left incomplete. 
See Challenger Expedition. 

Agassiz, ag'a-see, Louis (1807-1873), 
an eminent scientist. Born at Neuchatel, 
Switzerland, May 28, 1807. Died at Cam¬ 
bridge, Massachusetts, December 14, 1873. 



AGATE—AGAVE 


He was the son of a Protestant minister. 
He studied medicine at Zurich, Heidelberg, 
and Munich, and became professor of nat¬ 
ural history at Neuchatel in 1832. He was 
acquainted with Cuvier and Humboldt. 
His first published work was a de¬ 
scription of fishes brought from Brazil, 
1831. He increased his reputation by a 
five volume work in French, 1842, entitled 
Researches on Fossil Fishes , in which he 
made several improvements in the classifi¬ 
cation of fishes. With Guyot he studied 
the glaciers of the Alps. In 1848 Ag¬ 
assiz accepted the chair of zoology and ge¬ 
ology at Harvard. He rejected the evo¬ 
lutionary theory of the origin of animals. 
In 1868 Agassiz was made a non-resident 
professor of natural history at Cornell 
University. Although Agassiz’s opinions 
are not always accepted by scientists, he is 
conceded by all to have been a great 
teacher and a wonderful man. He gave 
the study of natural history a tremendous 
impulse in this country. Fie was devoted 
to field work and inspired his students 
with a love of nature. He established the 
first marine biological laboratory in this 
country, on the island of Penekese, south¬ 
west of Massachusetts. Fie lies buried 
near the graves of Lowell and Longfellow 
in Mount Auburn cemetery, Cambridge. 
A boulder from the Aar glacier in Switz¬ 
erland marks his resting place. The fol¬ 
lowing lines are from a poem read by 
Longfellow at a dinner given Professor 
Agassiz on the occasion of his fiftieth 
birthday: 

And Nature, the old nurse, took 
The child upon her knee, 

Saying: “Here is a story-book 
Thy father has written for thee.” 

“Come, wander with me,” she said, 

“Into regions yet untrod; 

And read what is still unread 
In the manuscripts of God.” 

And he wandered away and away 
With Nature, the dear old nurse, 

Who sang to him night and day 
The rhymes of the universe. 

Agate, ag'at, a variety of quartz fre¬ 
quently composed of many bands or lay¬ 
ers of different colors. It is related to 
chalcedony, carneliaii, and onyx. The 
moss agate owes its appearance to a pecu¬ 

4 


liar moss-like stain of manganese or iron- 
oxide, spreading and branching like frost 
on a window pane. The name “mocha 
stone,” sometimes applied to moss agates, 
is either due to the fact that those first 
used came from Mocha in Arabia, or it is 
a corruption of “moss agate.” While the 
finest moss agates are obtained from India, 
they are found in many localities in the 
states of Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and 
Montana. Very fine agates are found 
near Oldenburg in Germany. The best 
occur as rolled pebbles in the beds of 
streams. Kunz remarks that “no stone 
that is used in jewelry in the United 
States is cheaper, more beautiful, or more 
plentiful than the moss agate.” Cloudy 
agates, stone agates, and the like, are names 
of other varieties. Agates make very at¬ 
tractive ornaments, and are used in rings 
and seals, in the handles of knives and 
forks, toilet articles, button hooks, and the 
like, or for beads, marbles, etc. On ac¬ 
count of their hardness, agates make ex¬ 
cellent watch jewels and bearings for 
pivots and scales. Gold wire is drawn 
through an agate eye. In Scotland agates 
are known as “Scotch pebbles.” The Brit¬ 
ish Museum possesses a peculiar Egyptian 
agate bearing an accidental likeness to the 
face of the poet Chaucer. 

Agave, a-ga've, a genus of plants re¬ 
lated to the narcissus and daffodil. The 
best known species is the American aloe 
or century plant. This agave produces a 
spreading clump of long, fleshy leaves 
with spiny margins. After years of wait¬ 
ing, whence the name “century plant,” a 
leafless flower stem suddenly shoots up 
from the center to a height of from ten to 
possibly thirty feet and bears a profusion 
of lily-like flowers. The plant is then ex¬ 
hausted and dies. There are about one 
hundred and fifty different kinds of 
agaves, all natives of the warmer parts of 
America. Some seventy-five kinds are un¬ 
der cultivation and observation in the bo¬ 
tanical garden at Washington, and as 
many in the Missouri Botanical Garden at 
St. Louis. The Mexican agave yields a 
sweet juice from which pulque, the 
national beverage of Mexico, is manufac¬ 
tured. The American agave has been in- 


AGE 


troduced into southern Europe and north¬ 
ern Africa, with a view to its use as a 
hedge. It grows luxuriantly in all parts 
of Italy, where it is seen clinging to pre¬ 
cipitous walls of tufa or striking its roots 
into the loose and dry volcanic soil along 
the roadsides. The spiny leaves form 
hedges which turn stock like a wall of bay¬ 
onets. The leaves of the agave grown in 
Italy are used for the manufacture of 
hemp; and, cut into slices, are fed to cat¬ 
tle. The leaves of the various agaves are 
full of fibers or threads running length¬ 
wise. When the green leaves are soaked 
in water for a length of time, the pulp 
rots and separates from the fibers, which 
may then be drawn out. An agave of Yu¬ 
catan yields an immense amount of so- 
called sisal hemp. It is imported into the 
United States to be twisted into cables, 
ropes, and string. A large part of the 
cordage in use in this country is made of 
sisal. When a farmer puts a ball of bind¬ 
ing twine in place on his self-binding har¬ 
vester, the chances are that he is handling 
the fibers of agave leaves. Very likely 
they were shipped in bales from the Yuca¬ 
tan coast to be made into balls of twine in 
some American factory. See Pulque; 
Sisal. 

Age, a term of various meanings, in¬ 
cluding, among others, the length of time 
elapsing since one’s birth. In the United 
States a person is said to be of age when 
21 years old, though in many states a girl 
becomes of age at 18. A man may be a 
United States representative at 25, a sen¬ 
ator at 30, and president at 35. At 21 a 
man may vote and is liable for poll tax. 
He may be drafted into the militia at 18, 
but is exempt from poll tax and military 
service after 45. A child is not respon¬ 
sible for crime committed under the age of 
7, and only partially so up to the age 
of 14; but may be sent to a house of cor¬ 
rection or reform school at any age. A 
youth may be executed for murder at 14. 
An oath of allegiance may be taken at 17. 
Children are competent to give testimony 
at any age, but the court and jury are free 
to decide the degree of credibility to be 
given such testimony. In England a 
member of Parliament must have attained 


the age of 21; a priest, 24; a bishop, 30, 
and a minor may assume the throne at 18. 

The age to which man, the lower ani¬ 
mals, and plants live is not a matter of 
definite record. It is certain, however, 
that some animals live longer than man, 
and that some plants live longer than any 
animal. Among the older trees are the 
cocoanut palms of Brazil, 700 years old; 
Arabian date palms, 300; Wallace’s Oak 
at Paisley, Scotland, 700; eight celebrated 
olive trees on the Mount of Olives at Je¬ 
rusalem, 1,000; yews at Fountains Abbey, 
England, 900. Other celebrated chestnut, 
cypress, and oak trees are known to be in 
the neighborhood of 1,000 years old. By 
counting the rings of annual growth, 
Adamson, the botanist, estimated the age 
of certain baobab trees in Africa at 3,000 
to 5,000 years. The giant sequoias of 
California contend with the baobabs for 
the honor of being the oldest living things 
on the face of the earth. 

Among animals the swan is known to 
have lived over 100 years. The stork and 
the parrot have been known to live more 
than a century. The elephant and the 
rhinoceros are reputed to live 200 to 300 
years. An elephant is known to have 
lived 130 years after his capture. Esti¬ 
mated on the basis of the layers of whale¬ 
bone, whales are thought to attain an age 
of 400 years. Carp are credited with 150 
years, and in 1497 a pike was caught in 
Austria wearing a brass ring dated 1230, 
or 267 years back. A tortoise from the 
island of Seychelles was shown at the St. 
Louis Exposition, with a well-attested 
claim to an age of 250 years. 

The average age of human life is a little 
over 33 years. Many people live to 70 
years, and occasionally one attains 100 
years. 

The term age is also used in geology to 
denote a period of time. See Archeology . 

Agent, the legal appellation of one who 
is authorized to act for another, or 
others, called the “principal.” A 
further distinction is made between gen¬ 
eral and special agents, the latter having 
power to transact only special business. 
An agent may be employed by his prin¬ 
cipal on salary, or he may be recompensed 


AGINCOURT—AGRICOLA 


on the commission plan; and in any 
case, the position of the agent is always 
one of trust and responsibility. When 
the agent does not reveal the identity of 
his principal he is responsible to third per¬ 
sons, but, unless he exceeds his authority, 
is not so responsible when the principal is 
known. The principal, however, is usually 
responsible to third persons for civil of¬ 
fenses committed by the agent when acting 
within his authority, which he derives from 
the principal. But this does not relieve the 
agent of personal responsibility himself. 
The law gives an agent a lien upon the 
property of the principal that may be in 
his hands, in order that he may enforce 
payment for his services. 

Agincourt, ah-zhan-koor', a French vil¬ 
lage about thirty miles from the English 
Channel. It is noted as the scene of a victory 
won by the English over the French, Octo¬ 
ber 25, 1415. Fifteen thousand English 
under Henry V routed 50,000 French un¬ 
der Constable d’Albret. The French horse 
fell into the mire. The battlefield be¬ 
came a scene of butchery. Six dukes, 
many lords and knights, and 10,000 men- 
at-arms fell. Agincourt is called some¬ 
times the “French Flodden.” 

Agnosticism. See Theism. 

Ag'nus De'i, in ecclesiastical affairs, 
the figure of a lamb bearing a cross. The 
emblem is symbolical of the Saviour, the 
Lamb of God, a sacrifice offered for the 
redemption of a guilty world. The me¬ 
dieval sculptors used the emblem freely in 
their designs. The small cake made with 
the wax of Easter candles, and imprinted 
with this figure, is known as an Agnus 
Dei. The popes used to bless these cakes 
and distribute them freely on the Sunday 
after Easter. In later days of the church, 
however, the pope sends an Agnus Dei 
only to prominent ecclesiastics and this 
only on the occasion of his election and 
every seven years thereafter. The gift of 
a papal Agnus Dei is considered an honor. 
An anthem introduced into the Catholic 
Missal about 700 is called Agnus Dei. It 
is a paraphrase of John i: 29. It takes 
its name from the opening Latin words 
which signify “O, Lamb of God, who tak- 


eth away the sins of the world, have pity 
on us.” This anthem has a prominent 
part in the celebration of mass. 

Agouti, a-goo tl, a genus of gnawing 
mammals related to the guinea pig. The 
agouti is found in parts of South America 
and in some of the West Indian Islands. 
There are several species. The common 
agouti has the general appearance of a 
rabbit, but it is larger. It is sometimes 
called the South American hare. The toes 
are armed with strong claws for securing 
food; but, unlike the rabbit, the agouti 
does not burrow. The tail is a short naked 
stump on which the animal sits when eat¬ 
ing. The agoutis are forest animals. 
They live in colonies and feed on vegetable 
food entirely. Roots and nuts are a fa¬ 
vorite diet. Like the woodchuck, the 
striped “gopher,” and the prairie dog, the 
agouti is a pest, especially in sugar grow¬ 
ing localities. The little animals destroy 
the sugar plantations by gnawing the roots 
of the cane. The planters poison them in 
great numbers. The natives of Brazil and 
Guiana regard the flesh of the agouti as 
a delicacy. See Guinea Pig. 

Agricola, a-grik'o-la (37-93 A. D.), 
a famous Roman soldier and statesman. 
He was for many years the commander of 
the Roman forces in Britain. He pur¬ 
sued an intelligent policy in the manage¬ 
ment of British affairs. He established 
the power of Rome as far northward as 
the Scottish Highlands. His fleet sailed 
around Great Britain and proved that it 
was an island. Military roads, temples, 
baths, and other public improvements were 
made on a scale of magnificence calcu¬ 
lated to impress the Britons with an idea 
of the greatness of Rome. Few who have 
not investigated the subject are aware of 
the magnitude of Roman works in the 
island, many remnants of which may still 
be seen. Among other enterprises under¬ 
taken by Agricola was the construction of 
a row of fortresses entirely across the 
northern end of the island from the Firth 
of Forth to that of the Clyde. This was 
intended to exclude the barbarians then in¬ 
habiting the north of Scotland. The Brit¬ 
ish chieftains were encouraged to send 
their sons to Rome for an education, and 


AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS—AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 


many did so. The life of this general has 
been well described by his son-in-law, 
Tacitus, in a small volume called Agricola. 

Agricultural Experiment Stations. 

See Experiment Stations. 

Agricultural Education. Agricultural 
education is of comparatively recent origin. 
A few isolated attempts to place agricul¬ 
ture on a scientific basis were made in the 
17th and 18th centuries but systematic 
agricultural education was not begun until 
the last half of the 19th century. Now, in 
most of the countries of Europe and the 
United States and Canada it extends from 
the rural schools to the agricultural col¬ 
lege. The scheme of agricultural education 
naturally falls into four divisions: (1) 
Agricultural colleges; (2) Secondary 
schools; (3) Rural schools; (4) Exten¬ 
sion work. 

Agricultural Colleges. Collegiate 
education in agriculture began in the Unit¬ 
ed States by the introduction of the chem¬ 
istry of agriculture into the course of study 
of the Philadelphia Academy in 1751. 
This Academy later became the University 
of Pennsylvania. The prospectus of 
King’s College, New York (Columbia 
University) for 1754, mentions “animal 
husbandry” among its studies. In 1792 this 
college established a professorship of 
botany. Other colleges followed these 
leads, and at the outbreak of the Civil 
War there were a number of flourishing 
schools of agriculture in the country. The 
war for the time prevented further devel¬ 
opment of agricultural education, but in the 
midst of that conflict, in 1862, the Morrill 
Act was passed. This granted to each state 
30,000 acres of land for each member of 
Congress, the entire proceeds of the sale of 
this land to be set aside as a perpetual fund 
for the support of the colleges of agricul¬ 
ture and mechanic arts. The Act was sup¬ 
plemented in 1890 by a second Morrill Act, 
and in 1916, in addition to the above aid, 
provision was made for granting each 
agricultural college an annual fund of 
$50,000 for instruction and $30,000 for 
experiment stations. Every state and 
Hawaii and Porto Rico now have one or 
more agricultural colleges, supported 
wholly or in part by these funds. In a 


number of the southern states separate 
colleges are maintained for negroes. 

Most of the colleges require the equiv¬ 
alent of a four years’ high school course 
for admission, and they maintain four 
year courses in the various departments of 
agriculture such as agronomy, animal hus¬ 
bandry, dairying, etc., so that students 
may specialize in any line they prefer. 
Many state colleges give short courses dur¬ 
ing the winter for the purpose of assisting 
farmers who have not had opportunity for 
obtaining an agricultural education. An 
experiment station is connected with each 
state agricultural college. This is sup¬ 
ported largely from the government fund. 

See Experiment Station. 

\ 

High Schools. The first successful 
agricultural high school was established 
by the University of Minnesota in 1888. 
Notwithstanding the success of this school 
only ten others were established during 
the next ten years, but agricultural edu¬ 
cation has been rapidly extended since that 
time and now nearly every state agricul¬ 
tural college has an agricultural high 
school. In addition to these many city 
and town high schools have courses in 
agriculture. 

Elementary Schools. Instruction in 
agriculture in the elementary schools in 
the United States has been developed since 
the beginning of the 20th century, 
although in France such instruction has 
been compulsory since 1879. Now, the 
study of the elements of agriculture is 
required in the public schools of nearly 
all states. The work does not consist of 
the study of books merely, but includes 
garden making and the carrying on of 
various farm and household activities with 
which the boys’ and girls’ clubs are inti¬ 
mately associated, so that the work of the 
class room and the work in the field sup¬ 
plement each other. 

Extension Work. This consists of 
those movements which have for their pur¬ 
pose bringing instruction tcf the farmer 
who is not able to attend an agricultural 
college or other school. One of the 
oldest of these agencies is the farmers’ 
institute which is still active in many 
states. Finally, the county agent, who is 


AGRICULTURE 


a graduate of an agricultural college and 
a practical farmer as well, brings the rural 
communities into direct contact with the 
institution which he represents. 

Agriculture, the business of tilling the 
soil. With the exception of the chase and 
possibly the care of half domesticated ani¬ 
mals, the planting and harvesting of crops 
is the most ancient, as it certainly is the 
most honorable, of occupations. 

Since “Abel was a keeper of sheep,” and 
“Cain was a tiller of the ground,” a great 
advance has been made. The history of 
agriculture is too extensive for even an 
outline. It includes the development of 
oats, rye, barley, wheat, corn and other 
cereals from wild grasses; cabbage, beets, 
tomatoes, potatoes, and other vegetables 
from wild plants with little food value; 
serviceable breeds of horses cattle, and 
sheep from wild animals; and implements 
and machinery from the rude sticks, thin 
edged stones, and shells of the first hus¬ 
bandmen. Wheat, once rubbed in the 
palm of the hand or beaten from the sheaf 
with a stick, is now removed from the 
straw by a steam threshing machine at the 
rate of 2,000 bushels a day. The crooked 
stick with which primitive man scratched 
the ground has been developed into the 
motor plow turning a dozen furrows at a 
time. The cotton gin, seeder, mower, 
reaper, thresher, windmill, and farm en¬ 
gine have done much to relieve the drudg¬ 
ery of farm work as well as to increase 
production. The use of machinery for 
ditching, roadmaking, plowing, sowing, 
mowing, raking, reaping, husking, shell¬ 
ing grinding digging root crops storing, 
pumping, butter making, ginning, break¬ 
ing, flax spinning, weaving, and sewing 
leavse little room on the fann for unskilled 
labor. 

During the decade of 1910-1920 agri¬ 
cultural education gained a remarkable 
impetus. Agriculture is now a required 
study in the elementary schools of the 
Union and in each of the Canadian 
provinces. Agricultural high schools are 
common and there is one or more agri¬ 
cultural colleges and experiment stations 
in every state and Canadian province. 
Boys’ and girls’ clubs, canning clubs, pig 


clubs, and calf clubs are found in many 
school districts, and in many counties 
there is a specially trained agriculturist 
or county agent to advise with and assist 
the farmers and the various clubs of the 
county. 

The practice of scientific agriculture is 
becoming more prevalent each year. The 
accompanying table shows among other 
things that the increase in urban popula¬ 
tion is much larger than the increase in 
the number of farms. Moreover, previ¬ 
ous to 1910 there was still a great area of 
public land open to settlement. Between 
1910 and 1920 that land was occupied 
and with its occupation the opportunity 
of expanding the tillable area of the 
United States, except by irrigation, passed. 
To supply the demands of a growing 
population agricultural methods must 
change, more intensive farming, insuring 
a larger yield per acre, becomes imperative. 
Only a few of the large ranches of former 
days remain. Most of them have been 
divided into smaller farms that admit of 
more thorough cultivation. The one crop 
practice in the corn belt, the wheat belt 
and the cotton belt, has likewise been 
generally abandoned. Throughout the 
country farmers realize that crop rotation 
is essential to the maintenance of pro¬ 
duction. 

The experiment stations are giving spe¬ 
cial attention to the improvement of the 
leading crops in their respective states 
through the development of better strains 
of wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables and 
fruit. Farmers are exercising greater 
care in the selection of seed, and the adap¬ 
tation of fertilizers to their soil. The ex¬ 
periment stations are in close touch with 
the farmers, and render them all possible 
assistance. These efforts have met with 
commendable results. Statistics show that 
the increase per capita in the number of 
bushels of wheat is from 5.5 in 1860 to 
7.4 in 1919, and that the increase in the 
production of com was from 22.2 to 26.2 
bushels during the same period. The best 
authorities state that the general agricul¬ 
tural production of the country can be 
increased at the rate of 2 per cent per 
annum for the future. 




1. Planting 


2. Cultivating 





3. Corn Harvester 


4. Fodder in the Shock 



5. Corn Picker 6. Husker and Shredder 

CORN 

































3. Field of Shocks 4. Wheat in the Stack 



WHEAT 





































AGRICULTURE 


Population, Farms, Farm Land and Farm Property in the United States: 

1920 and 1910 




1920 

1910 

Increase, 

Per 

Item 


(January 1) 

(April 15) 

Amount 

cent 

Population, total . 


105,710,620 

91,972,266 

13,738,354 

14.9 

Rural. 


51,406,017 

49,806,146 

1,599,871 

3.2 

Urban . 


54,304,603 

42,166,120 

12; 138^483 

28.8 

Per cent rural. 


48.6 

54.2 



Number of farms. 


6,448,343 

6,361,502 

86,841 

1.4 

Approximate land area of the 

coun- 





try . 

.acres 

1,903,215,360 

1,903,289,600 

—74,240 


All land in farms. 

.acres 

955,883,715 

878,798,325 

77,085,390 

8.8 

Improved land in farms. 

.acres 

503,073,007 

478,451,750 

24,621*257 

5.1 

Woodland in farms. 

.acres 

167,730,794 

190,865,553 

—23,134>59 

—12.1 

Other unimproved land in farms.ac. 

285,079,914 

209,481,022 

75,598,'892 

36.1 

Per cent of land area in farms. 


50.2 

46.2 



Per cent of farm land improved.... 

52.6 

54.4 



Average acreage per farm. 


148.2 

138.1 

10.1 

7.3 

Average improved acreage per 

farm 

78.0 

75.2 

2.8 

3.7 

Value of all farm property. 

.$77,924,100,338 

$40,991,449,090 

$36,932,651,248 

90.1 

Land and buildings. 


66,316.002,602 

34,801,125,697 

31,514,876,905 

90.6 

Land alone . 


54,829,563,059 

28,475,674,169 

26,353,888,890 

92.5 

Buildings . 


11,486,439,543 

6,325,451,528 

5,160,988,015 

81.6 

Implements and machinery. . . 


3,594,772,928 

1,265,149,783 

2,329,623,145 

184.1 

Livestock . 


8,013,324,808 

4,925,173,610 

3,088,151,198 

62.7 

Average value per farm: 






All farm property. 


$12,084 

$6,444 

$5,640 

87.5 

Land and buildings. 


10,284 

5,471 

4,813 

88.0 

Land alone . 


8,503 

4,476 

4,027 

90.0 

Buildings . 


1,781 

994 

787 

79.2 

Implements and machinery.... 


557 

199 

358 

179.9 

Livestock. 


1,243 

774 

469 

60.6 

Average value per acre of lands in 





farms: 






All farm property. 


$81.52 

$46.64 

$34.88 

74.8 

Land and buildings. 


69.38 

39.60 

29.78 

75.2 

Land alone . 


57.36 

32.40 

24.96 

77.0 

Buildings . 


12.02 

7.20 

4.82 

66.9 

Implements and machinery.... 


3.76 

1.44 

2.32 

161.1 

Livestock. 


8.38 

5.60 

2.78 

49.6 

Note —A minus sign (—) denotes 

decrease. 





Agriculture in 

Canada 




Canada, more predominantly than the 
United States, is an agricultural country. 
There has been, to be sure, a marked trend 
of population from the farms to the cities, 
with the result that the urban population, 
which was about 40% of the total in 
1901, is now almost one-half. Yet the 
yearly crop of spring wheat is worth 
about as much as all the manufactures of 
the Dominion, and the hay crop, as a rule, 
is worth considerably more than all the 


minerals mined. The extent of agriculture 
in 1921 is expressed in the following 


statement: 

Area of the Dominion, acres.977,585,513 

Area in farms, acres.125,000,000 

Number of farms. 750,000 

Improved acreage. 55,000,000 


It must not be imagined that these fig¬ 
ures are fixed. On the contrary, there are 
considerable variations from year to year, 
but the general movement is upward. For 
example, the year 1917, which was the 




































AGRICULTURE 


first year in which field crops were valued 
at more than one billion dollars, showed 
a total of almost exactly double 1912; the 
latest available figures (1921) show a total 
of almost an even $1,000,000,000. 

Agriculture today represents a capital 
investment in Canada of more than 
$7,000,000,000. Of this amount Ontario 
claims about one-fourth, while the three 
prairie provinces together share about one- 
third. Not so many years ago the plains 
of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba 
were regarded as useful only for grazing, 
but now they are one of the greatest grain¬ 
growing regions in the world. For years 
Ontario led the provinces in the produc¬ 
tion of wheat and oats, but since 1911 
Saskatchewan has ranked first in both of 
these grains. The following table shows 
the tremendous increase in the yield of 
field crops: 


1870 

Fall Wheat. 6,367,000 

Spring Wheat . 10,355,000 

Barley. 11,496,000 

Oats . 42,489,000 

Rye . 1,064,000 

Corn . 3,802,000 

Buckwheat. 3,802,000 

Potatoes . 47,330,000 

Peas. 9,905,000 

Beans . 220,000 

Flax . 

Hay and Clover. 3,818,000 


During this same period there was an 
equally marked increase in the number of 
farm live stock in Canada, as shown by 
the regular census. The figures follow: 


methods followed in other countries, with 
the result that the Dominion’s agricul¬ 
tural resources are being properly utilized. 

In some respects agriculture has reached 
its highest development not in the grain¬ 
growing prairie provinces, but in the sec¬ 
tions which have been settled the longest. 
In Prince Edward Island, in a few shel¬ 
tered valleys in Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick, in the St. Lawrence valley 
above Quebec, and in the Ontario penin¬ 
sula, agriculture has reached a stage of 
intensive cultivation. It is true, however 
that these sections are better known for 
the quality of their output than for their 
total value. Potatoes and turnips receive 
special attention in the Maritime Provinces. 
The Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia is 
noted as one of the richest apple districts 
in the world. But Ontario produces nearly 


Bushels 


1890 

1910 

1921 

14,686,000 

20,408,000 

15,520,000 

27,536,000 

111,669,000 

285.337,000 

17,222,000 

28,848,000 

59,709,000 

83,428,000 

245,393,000 

426,232,000 

1,341,000 

1,542,000 

21,455,000 

10,711,000 

14,417,000 

14,904,000 

14,914,000 

7,102,000 

8,230,000 

53,490,000 

55,461,000 

107,246,000 

14,823,000 

4,788,000 

2,769,000 

800,000 

826,000 

1,089,000 

138,000 

4,244,000 

4,111,000 

• 7,693,000 

10,406,000 

11,366,000 

three-fourths 

of the apple crop of Canada. 


Southern Ontario, especially the Niagara 
peninsula, is famous for the variety and 
excellence of its fruits. British Columbia, 


Horses .... 
Milch Cows 
Other Cattle 

Sheep . 

Swine. 


1871 

1891 

1911 

1921 

836,000 

1,470,000 

2,598,000 

3,813,000 

1,251,000 

1,857,000 

2,595,000 

3,736,000 

1,373,000 

2,263,000 

3,930,000 

6,469,000 

3,155,000 

2,563,000 

2,174,000 

3,675,000 

1,366,000 

1,733,000 

3,634,000 

3,904,000 


These figures make possible some inter¬ 
esting comparisons. For example, during 
the fifty years between 1871 and 1921 the 
population of the Dominion increased 
about 140%, while the production of wheat 
increased nearly twenty-fold, of barley 
more than five-fold, of oats more than 
ten-fold, and of rye more than twenty¬ 
fold. In other words, Canadian agricul¬ 
ture has kept progress with the improved 


because of great variety in soil and cli¬ 
mate, has become highly diversified, and 
many fruits and vegetables are raised 
there. Apples, peaches, plums and small 
fruits are grown very successfully in the 
warm delta of the Fraser River which is 
well adapted to fruit culture. 

Diversification. There has been a 
marked tendency toward diversification 
throughout the Dominion in recent years. 






















AGRICULTURE, DEPARTMENT OF 


The farms on which wheat is the only 
crop are now rare, even in the western 
provinces, and nowadays many farmers 
raise cattle, horses, swine, and perhaps 
even a few sheep. Dairying, poultry-rais¬ 
ing, and such smaller branches as bee¬ 
keeping, have all shown a remarkable de¬ 
velopment. The establishment of the 
dairying industry on a factory basis is one 
of the notable developments of the last 
two or three decades; in 1891, the first 
year in which records were kept, the value 
of factory-made butter, cheese and con¬ 
densed cream, was $10,780,000, while to¬ 
day the annual total is over $100,000,000. 

How the Government Helps the 
Farmer. In a young and growing coun¬ 
try, it is not enough that the government 
keep records of agriculture. This fact has 
been appreciated in Canada from the start, 
and the Department of Agriculture was 
one of the original branches of the execu¬ 
tive. One of the most valuable features 
of the department’s work is the experi¬ 
mental farms, the first of which was estab¬ 
lished in 1887. In addition to the central 
farm at Ottawa there are now about twenty 
branch farms scattered from Charlotte¬ 
town, P. E. I., to Sidney and Summerland, 
B. C., all of which are constantly working 
for the improvement of agricultural meth¬ 
ods. They give information as to the best 
way to prepare the soil for this or that 
crop, the most profitable crops to raise, 
the best kind of fodder or silage for cat¬ 
tle or hogs under particular conditions, 
and a thousand and one other items which 
any farmer might want to know. Epi¬ 
demic animal diseases have been elimi¬ 
nated through the government’s efforts, 
and government registration of pedigreed 
live stock has brought a marked improve¬ 
ment. The government maintains model 
creameries and cheese factories, and in¬ 
spectors show the farmer the best way to 
pack his products. Through Canadian 
commercial agents, stationed in large cities 
the world over, the market for Canadian 
produce has been studied and steadily ex¬ 
tended. These are only a few of the ways 
in which the government helps the farmer. 

Each province also maintains a Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture with a cabinet minister 


or a secretary of agriculture in charge of 
it. Many of the provinces support agri¬ 
cultural colleges, which in the western 
provinces are part of the provincial uni¬ 
versity. Grants are also given to privately 
endowed agricultural colleges, especially 
in the Province of Quebec. 

The activities of the Provincial Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture include: the main¬ 
tenance of demonstration farms; provision 
for selected seed; maintenance of a corps 
of county agents and demonstrators whose 
work includes assistance to farmers and 
the development of school fairs and agri¬ 
cultural projects; help in research work 
in the agricultural sciences; the promo¬ 
tion of agricultural fairs; the publication 
of bulletins of information and instruc¬ 
tion to farmers. 

Agriculture, Department of 

The Bureau of Agriculture was organized 
in 1862 as a branch of the Department of 
the Interior. In 1869 the Bureau was 
raised to the rank of a department, and 
placed in charge of a Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture, who became a member of the Presi¬ 
dent’s cabinet. Norman B. Coleman, who 
was commissioner of agriculture, was the 
first secretary. The fourth secretary, 
James Wilson, of Iowa, held the office for 
four consecutive terms and under his ad¬ 
ministration the department became highly 
efficient and widely extended its fields of 
activity. Excepting the Postoffice Depart¬ 
ment, the Department of Agriculture 
comes in direct contact with more people 
than any of the other executive depart¬ 
ments. Its activities have multiplied until 
they include practically every phase of 
rural life, and the benefits it has conferred 
upon the farmers are beyond estimate. 

At the time of its organization, the de¬ 
partment included the bureaus of plant 
industry, animal industry, chemistry and 
soils. In 1891 the Weather Bureau was 
added; the department also assumed 
charge of all government experiment sta¬ 
tions. Other bureaus and divisions have 
been added as the need for them has 
arisen. The most important of these addi¬ 
tions include the bureaus of biological 
survey, entomology, crop estimate, the divi¬ 
sion of publications, the forestry service, 


AGRIPPA 


the office of public roads and the states 
relation service. See Weather Bureau ; 
Foresi ry ; Road. 

The Bureau of Plant Industry 
makes a study of farming under various 
conditions, conducts researches in plant 
breeding, studies the possibilities of plants, 
including forest trees; investigates farm 
demonstration work in up-to-date farm 
practice. It studies the possibilities of 
new crops in various localities and aids 
farmers in the introduction of new varie¬ 
ties of grain and other plants that will 
tend to increase production. 

The Bureau of Animal Industry 
conducts research work on animal diseases 
and on breeding, and investigates methods 
of dairying and the distribution of milk. 

The Bureau of Soils makes a study 
of the chemistry and physics of the soil, 
surveys the soil in various localities and 
makes maps of such surveys. It studies 
soil fertility and gives advice on fertilizers. 

The Bureau of Chemistry conducts 
researches in the chemistry of drugs, 
foods, fertilizers, etc., exposes adultera¬ 
tions and other fraudulent devices. See 
Adulteration; Pure Food Law. 

The Bureau of Biological Survey 
studies the food habits of animals, maps 
out life zones and conducts researches on 
the distribution of plants and animals. 

The Bureau of Entomology makes 
a special study of insects, determines those 
that are beneficial and those that are in¬ 
jurious and issues bulletins on methods of 
preventing and destroying insect pests. 

The Bureau of Crop Estimates 
issues the monthly crop bulletins and 
other statistical matter. 

The Forestry Service has charge of 
the forests on public lands and in the na¬ 
tional forest preserves. It also assists 
state forestry organizations and individuals 
in the preservation of their forests. 

The Office of Public Roads gives in¬ 
formation relating to the construction and 
maintenance of public roads and conducts 
experiments in road making. 

The States Relation Service cooper¬ 
ates with schools, homes and communities 
in organizing boys’ and girls’ clubs, com¬ 
munity centers and other organizations. 


The Division of Publications has 
charge of printing all the publications of 
the Department. Most of these consist of 
bulletins, circulars and other pamphlets 
and they can be obtained free of charge, 
by writing for them. Address Chief of 
the Division of Publications, Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. A 
monthly list of these publications can also 
be obtained at slight cost by writing for 
it. The total publications of the Division 
exceed 34,000,000 copies a year. 

Agrippa, Herod I (11 B. C.-44 A. D.), 
the grandson of Herod the Great, the 
Herod who “slew all the children of 
Bethlehem from two years old and un¬ 
der” at the time of the birth of Jesus. 
Herod Agrippa was educated at Rome and 
became a favorite of the Emperor Tiberi¬ 
us. This favor was lost when Agrippa 
unwisely remarked that he wished Tiberi¬ 
us would die. He was thrown into prison 
but Tiberius died shortly and Caligula, 
who succeeded him, released Agrippa, be¬ 
stowed wealth upon him, and gave him cer¬ 
tain provinces of Judea with the title of 
king. Later, under the Emperor Claud¬ 
ius, the whole of Judea came under his 
authority, Agrippa becoming thus one of 
the most powerful princes of the East. He 
was popular among the Jews because of 
his activity in opposing the growing sect of 
Christians. He it was who caused the 
Apostle James, the elder, to be beheaded, 
and who threw Peter into prison, as 
told in the book of Acts. Agrippa was 
a vain and superstitious man. The story 
runs that while in prison under the Em¬ 
peror Tiberius he once observed an owl 
seated above his head. The omen was in¬ 
terpreted to portend his speedy release, 
which occurred. At the same time, how¬ 
ever, he was warned that when this omen 
appeared again it would indicate that his 
death would occur within five days. While 
still at the height of his power and in the 
prime of life, he once appeared at the 
theater to meet the inhabitants of Tyre 
and Sidon who would sue for peace since 
the king had been displeased with them. 
Agrippa was arrayed in robes of dazzling 
silver tissue, and when, after his address, 
the people shouted, “It is the voice of a 


AGRIPPA—AIR 


god and not of man,” he was elated. In 
the midst of his satisfaction, however, he 
glanced upward, beheld an owl seated a- 
■bove him, was overcome with terror and 
fell ill immediately. After five days of 
horrible suffering he died “eaten of 
worms” as we are told, Acts xii: 23. 

Agrippa, Herod II (27-100 A. D.), 
a son of Agrippa, Herod I. He was at 
one time king of Chalais, but Claudius de¬ 
prived him of his kingdom, giving him 
other provinces in its place. Although 
a Jew he was devoted to Rome and the 
Romans. This is the King Agrippa be¬ 
fore whom the Apostle Paul was called 
to plead his cause, as recounted in Acts 
xxv: 26, and who said to Paul after his 
address, “Almost thou persuadest me to 
be a Christian.” 

Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius (63-12 

B. C.), a Roman general and states¬ 
man. He was of humble birth, but while 
little more than a boy became the chosen 
companion of Caius Octavius, the succes¬ 
sor of Julius Caesar, known later by the 
title of Augustus. Agrippa commanded 
the Roman fleet in the battle of Actium, 
which made Octavius master of the Roman 
World. Agrippa was chosen aedile in 33 
B. C. and during his tenure of office made 
many improvements in the city of Rome. 
The Pantheon, three of the most important 
aqueducts, and other public buildings were 
the work of Agrippa. 

Ague. See Malaria. 

Aguinaldo, a-ge-nal'do, Emilio 
(1870-), a soldier and leader of the Fili¬ 
pino insurrections against Spain and the 
United States. He was born in the Philip¬ 
pines and educated at a private college. 
In 1896 he became mayor of Cavite, and 
took the part of leader in the rebellion 
arising that year. When the rebellion was 
put down he left the islands promising 
not to return, but after Admiral Dewey’s 
victory in Manila Bay in 1898, Aguinaldo 
obtained the consent of the American au¬ 
thorities to return and set up a native ad¬ 
ministration under American protection. 
He re-commenced hostilities in January, 
1899 by issuing a protest against American 
pretensions to sovereignty and calling up¬ 
on Filipinos to continue their fight for 


liberty. He was defeated in battle, Feb¬ 
ruary 4, and, though fighting was con¬ 
tinued for some time, it was with no better 
success. Aguinaldo was captured in 1901 
by Gen. Frederick Funston and taken to 
Manila. Here he acknowledged the sov¬ 
ereignty of the United States and took 
the oath of allegiance. 

Ahmes, a'mes. The earliest known 
manuscript on mathematics is that of 
Ahmes who lived 1700 B. C. He was an 
Egyptian scribe, and it is presumed that 
his Directions for Obtaining Knowledge 
of All Dark Things was copied from an 
earlier treatise, possibly several hundred 
years before. This manuscript shows that 
even at this early date the simple algebraic 
equation was known. 

Ahriman, a'ri-man. See Mythology, 
Persian ; Zoroaster. 

Ainos, i'noz, a people living in the 
northern part of Japan, parts of Saghalin, 
the Kurile Islands, and the adjacent coast. 
There are perhaps 25,000 of them. As 
compared with the Japanese, they are a 
hairy, light skinned folk. Students are in¬ 
clined to believe that they belong to the 
faraway white, or Caucasian, rather than 
to the Mongolian race. At one time they 
appear to have occupied all Japan. It is 
believed that many Ainos were absorbed by 
the Japanese in marriage, and this is one 
of the reasons why the Japs differ some-, 
what from the Chinese. The Ainos are 
short, broad-shouldered, and shaggy. 
They are intemperate. They hold festi¬ 
vals in honor of bears. A hedge on the 
east side of the hut and a mop-like stick 
with a bundle of shavings tied to one end 
are objects of reverence. They have a 
fund of entertaining folk-lore stories. 
They live in filthy, rude huts, and subsist 
chiefly by hunting, fishing, and trapping, 
or else they work for the Japanese. An 
Ainos village was one of the features of 
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held at 
St. Louis. When requested to authorize 
an Ainos exhibit, the Japanese government 
consented only on condition that the na¬ 
tives be shown as an inferior, not a Japa¬ 
nese people. See Sakhalin. 

Air, the gaseous fluid which surrounds 
the earth. It is a mechanical mixture of 


AIR 


somewhat variable composition, consisting 
chiefly of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, water 
vapor, and carbon dioxide. If freed from 
water, carbon dioxide, and other minor 
constituents, air would contain by volume 
approximately 78 parts of nitrogen, 21 
parts of oxygen, and 1 part of argon. If 
gases did not possess the property of dif¬ 
fusion the several constituents of air would 
arrange themselves in layers in the 
order of their densities. Thus, following 
an illustration given by Graham, there 
would be the following layers resting upon 
one another and covering the earth’s sur¬ 
face. Next to the surface, five inches of 
w r ater; next above, thirteen feet of carbon 
dioxide; then a layer of argon of about 
ninety yards thickness; above that, one 
mile of oxygen, and on the top about four 
miles of nitrogen. The amount of carbon 
dioxide in the air is small, being as a rule 
from three to four parts in ten thousand. 
It is produced from combustion and decay¬ 
ing of organic matter, and the respiration 
of animals. While the percentage amount 
of carbon dioxide is small, the total 
amount is quite large, it being estimated 
that over each acre of the earth’s surface 
there are about 30 tons of the gas. Water 
vapor is the most variable constituent, 
due to the changing capacity of air for 
moisture at different temperatures and to 
the character of the earth’s surface. When 
air contains all the moisture it can hold, 
it is said to be saturated. 

Since nitrogenous animal and vegetable 
matters are constantly undergoing de¬ 
cay, traces of ammonia and ammonium 
compounds are always present in the air. 
In the neighborhood of factories, smelting- 
works, and of cities burning soft coal, 
there is a noticeable amount of sulphur 
acids, sometimes so considerable as to de¬ 
stroy vegetation. There also exists in the 
air suspended matter, consisting of fine 
volcanic dust, spores of molds and algae, 
small plant seeds, bacteria, soot, and 
finely pulverized earth. The dust and 
like impurities can be seen when a 
beam of sunlight finds its way into a 
room. On a larger scale, these impurities 
cause beautiful sunsets as well as disagree¬ 
able fogs. The theory has been advanced 


that fogs and clouds are to some extent the 
result of particles of condensed moisture 
adhering to the dust particles in the air. 
According to Tyndall, the blue color of the 
sky is due to the action of these particles 
on sunlight; above the atmosphere it is 
reasoned that the firmament appears inky 
black. Ozone, which is a condensed and 
more active form of oxygen, is found in 
very small quantity chiefly in pure air, such 
as country air and the air of the seaside. 

Oxygen is the constituent of air most 
necessary to animal life. The average 
adult human being draws about one pint 
of air into his lungs at each breath, the 
oxygen being partly taken up by the blood 
and the remainder passed out in the exha¬ 
lation. The inhaled oxygen combines with 
the venous blood in the lungs and oxidizes 
it. The oxygenated blood passes through 
the body and returns to the lungs charged 
with carbon dioxide, which gas is exhaled 
into the atmosphere. Here it follows that 
the respiration of animals affords a con¬ 
stant supply of carbon dioxide. 

Carbon dioxide serves as a food for 
plants. Under the influence of sunlight 
the leaves of plants absorb the gas, which 
is decomposed within the plant tissues into 
carbon and oxygen. The oxygen not re¬ 
quired by the plant is returned to the at¬ 
mosphere, thus tending to maintain the 
conditions requisite for the life of animals. 
Air is also necessary for the germination 
of seeds. The presence of an ample sup¬ 
ply of air in the soil is as indispensable to 
the life of upland plants as is that of wa¬ 
ter, and methods of tillage are adopted 
which facilitate soil breathing. The ni¬ 
trogen of the air serves to dilute the oxy¬ 
gen, thus preventing too rapid oxidation or 
combustion. In an atmosphere containing 
a much larger proportion of oxygen, com¬ 
bustion would be more rapid and intense; 
if there were less oxygen, breathing would 
be more difficult, and fires would burn 
more slowly. In an atmosphere contain¬ 
ing no oxygen there could be no combus¬ 
tion, no growth of animals, or even of 
plants. The office of argon is not yet un¬ 
derstood. 

Nitrogen is also a source from which is 
obtained plant nutriment. Certain plants, 


AIR 


legumes like clover, are able with the aid 
of bacteria to obtain their nitrogen direct 
from the air. Fertilizers are now made 
from air by means of electrical methods. 
This industry has assumed great impor¬ 
tance in Norway where water power is 
abundant and affords a cheap source of 
electrical energy. The so-called Norwe¬ 
gian saltpeter is made at a factory at No- 
todden in the Hitterdal, Norway. This 
factory has been in operation since May, 
1905, and is capable of turning out from 
3,000 to 5,000 tons of nitrate per annum. 

The atmosphere plays an important part 
in controlling the general temperature at 
the earth’s surface. The direct rays from 
the sun passing toward the earth are con¬ 
siderably weakened by absorption on their 
way through the air. It has been esti¬ 
mated that a vertical ray passing through 
clear air reaches the earth with a loss of 
about one-fourth of its original intensity. 
The amount of radiant heat absorbed is 
all applied in raising the temperature of 
the air; the amount of heat transmitted 
is partly absorbed and partly radiated at 
the earth’s surface. The heat radiated 
from the earth by day also aids in raising 
the temperature of the air. At night the 
earth cools and the air near it is cooled 
by radiation to the cooled surface. The 
greatest control of air temperatures by ra¬ 
diation takes place in the lower air, over 
the land, and in valleys. If the air be¬ 
comes dusty, as in desert regions, or smoky, 
as in the neighborhood of forest fires, or 
cloudy, as in stormy weather, the lower 
strata are shielded from warming by day 
and from cooling by night. Under the 
dense fogs of London, hardly any per¬ 
ceptible rays from the sun reach the 
ground. In a certain sense the atmosphere 
acts as a blanket, absorbing and retaining 
heat and serving to lessen the extremes of 
temperature from day to night and from 
summer to winter. Professor Langley 
ventures the statement that, if we had no 
atmosphere, the noonday temperature in 
the midst of what is now at times the hot¬ 
test part of Africa would not be above 
328 degrees below zero Fahrenheit—a de¬ 
gree of cold almost inconceivable. 

The air being a compressible fluid un¬ 


der the action of gravity does not lie in 
a layer of uniform density throughout, but 
diminishes rapidly in density from the sur¬ 
face upwards. The greater portion of the 
atmosphere is estimated to lie within four 
or five miles above the earth. At the sea 
level, air presses downward at the rate 
of about 14.7 pounds to the square inch, 
or, technically speaking, exerts a pressure 
of “one atmosphere.” This slight density, 
while offering no resistance to the ordi¬ 
nary movements of men and animals, en¬ 
ables birds and insects to fly; and the 
motion of the air itself, in the form of 
wind, has been utilized by man from the 
earliest ages as the motive power for sail¬ 
ing vessels, driving windmills, and even 
propelling the land carriages that were 
the earliest forerunners of the modern 
automobile. The air is set in motion by 
solar heat. It is not only compressed by 
the pressure from above, but its elasticity 
causes it to press outward in all directions 
with equal force. This force buoys up and 
supports everything that is launched into 
the atmosphere, to the extent of the weight 
of air that it displaces, similar to the 
action of water in supporting anything 
placed in it. If a balloon filled with hot 
air or a gas lighter than air is released 
from the earth, it rises because the up¬ 
ward pressure or buoyancy is greater than 
the weight of the balloon; this principle is 
the basis of the science of aerial navigation. 
The elastic pressure of the air is measured 
by the barometer, and gradually decreases 
in the ascent from sea level. On the 
summit of Pike’s Peak the air pressure is 
about 8.3 pounds to the square inch, and 
the atmosphere is estimated to extend to 
a height of from fifty to one hundred 
miles above the earth’s surface. Aviators 
have attained notable altitudes, and the 
record was gained by Lieut. John A. Mac- 

Ready, who rose to 40,800 feet. 

One cubic foot of air at 32 degrees Fah¬ 
renheit, and under one atmosphere pres¬ 
sure, weighs about one and a quarter 
ounces; in other words, air is about 773 
times lighter than water. Under a pressure 
of 39 atmospheres, and at a temperature 
of 220 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit, air 
is liquefied. Liquid air is very mobile and 


AIR-BRAKE—AIR-GUN 


has a bluish tint. It boils at about 310 
degrees below zero. In spite of its low 
temperature liquid air can be poured upon 
the hand without danger; it does not even 
feel cold. The liquid may be frozen at a 
somewhat lower temperature, under which 
condition it looks like ordinary ice. Liq¬ 
uid air boils vigorously and changes rap¬ 
idly to a gas. This tendency to change to 
a gas makes the liquid available for such 
purposes as running a motor. As com¬ 
pared with ordinary fuels, one great ad¬ 
vantage is the small weight of the liquid 
required to perform a unit of work, but 
the cost of producing the liquid is a seri¬ 
ous drawback. Nearly all liquid and gas¬ 
eous bodies become solid when cooled in 
liquid air, and chemical changes are re¬ 
tarded or arrested. Cartridges made of 
granular charcoal and cotton waste, when 
saturated with liquid air, have been used 
as an explosive in mining. The largest liq¬ 
uid air factory in the world is near Mu¬ 
nich, at w T hich place as high as fifty quarts 
an hour have been produced.— Julius 
Hortvet. 

Air-Brake, in railroading, a mechanical 
contrivance by which compressed air is 
used to stop railroad trains or to regulate 
their speed. In its simplest form an air¬ 
brake consists of four parts, a condensing 
air-pump, a train-pipe, a brake-cylinder, 
and a brake. The pump, which is located 
on the locomotive and is under control of 
the engineer, stores compressed air in a 
reservoir. The train-pipe runs back un¬ 
der the train. It is composed of car 
lengths coupled together to form one con¬ 
tinuous pipe. The brake-cylinders, one 
under each car, are supplied with com¬ 
pressed air through the train-pipe. The 
piston of each brake-cylinder works a lev¬ 
er which, in turn, forces the brake-shoe 
against the wheel of the car. When the 
engineer desires to retard the motion of 
his train, he merely throws a lever and per¬ 
mits air to escape from the reservoir into 
the brake-cylinders, thus forcing the pis¬ 
tons and the brake-shoes to do their work. 
This simple form, known as the straight 
air-brake, was placed on trains by Mr. 
George Westinghouse in 1869. Mr. West- 
inghouse has devised numerous improve¬ 


ments. The different forms are known as 
the straight air-brake, the automatic air¬ 
brake, the quick action air-brake, and the 
high speed air-brake. The high speed 
form was devised about 1891. With 
the latest and most approved equip¬ 
ment an engineer can bring a heavy train 
running at full speed to a dead standstill 
within an incredibly short distance—“al¬ 
most within the throw of a hat,” as one 
writer puts it. Many serious accidents are 

thus avoided. 

An important part of the mechanism of 
the modern air-brake is the triple valve, 
invented by George Westinghouse, the 
original inventor of the air-brake, to meet 
the requirements of heavy and high speed 
trains. This performs three functions. It 
charges the auxiliary reservoirs, applies the 
brakes to the wheels, and releases them; 
all these duties being performed auto¬ 
matically. The present quick action auto¬ 
matic air-brake is equipped with the quick 
action triple valve, which gives a high 
braking power in emergency applications 
and a lower but sufficient power in ordi¬ 
nary service applications. Every type of 
brake equipment on a locomotive can be 
used with any type of air-brake equipment 
on the cars in a train. Automatic air¬ 
brakes on the Westinghouse principle are 
also extensively used on street railway cars. 

Air-Gun, an instrument resembling a 
rifle or shotgun, which discharges darts or 
bullets by the force of compressed air. It 
usually consists of an air chamber behind 
the barrel, with a contrivance on the prin¬ 
ciple of a pump for condensing air and 
forcing it into the air chamber, which 
acts as a reservoir. A valve operated by 
the trigger of the gun admits the com¬ 
pressed air into the barrel when a missile 
is to be projected, and in some weapons 
of this kind the air pressure reaches 500 
pounds to the square inch. The blow-pipe 
of South American and African natives is 
the original and simplest form of air-gun; 
its greatest development was a pneumatic 
gun invented by an officer of the United 
States army in 1886 for throwing pro¬ 
jectiles filled with dynamite. The range 
of an ordinary air-gun is from 150 to 250 
feet. 


AIR-PLANTS—AIR-PUMP 


Air-Plants, plants that are not rooted 
in the ground, but are attached to the 
bark of other plants. They live in the 
air without earth or water, and derive 
their nourishment from the air. Doubt¬ 
less these plants also draw food from the 
decaying wood and bark of the plants 
to which they are attached. They are to 
be distinguished from parasites which 
suck the sap of other plants. Strictly 
speaking, all mosses and lichens growing 
on the trunks of trees are air-plants. 
The Druid-like beards that reach to the 
bosoms of Longfellow’s Acadian hem¬ 
locks, and the Spanish moss that drapes 
the forests in the swamps and along the 
shores of the Gulf States, are air-plants. 
The name is restricted, usually, to flow¬ 
ering plants, including a large number 
of showy orchids growing in moist, hot, 
shady localities like the forests of the 
Amazon and of India. See Orchids; 
Lichens. 

Air-Pump, a device for exhausting, 
compressing, or transmitting air. In the 
exhausting form of air-pump, the re¬ 
ceiver is connected by an air-tight passage 
with an air-tight cylinder. Each cylinder 
head, as well as the piston, is fitted with 
a delicate valve, all three valves opening 
upward or away from the receiver. When 
the piston, which we shall suppose to be 
at the upper or outer end of the cylinder, 
is pushed down, the air in the cylinder 
is forced through the piston valve. When 
the piston is drawn up, the air in the cylin¬ 
der is forced out of the cylinder through 
the upper valve and cannot return, as in 
the attempt to do so it closes the valve. In 
the meantime the expansive force of the 
air in the receiver has opened the lower 
valve, and air has passed from the receiv¬ 
er into the cylinder. The air now in the 
cylinder is driven out by the next down¬ 
ward and upward stroke, and so on un¬ 
til the air in the receiver becomes too 
rare to open the lower valve. Other fea¬ 
tures not considered, the efficiency of an 
air-pump, that is to say, the perfection of 
the vacuum produced, depends on the deli¬ 
cacy, lightness, and fit of the lower valve. 

An interesting problem can be made 
relative to the number of strokes required 


to form a theoretical vacuum. If we as¬ 
sume that there is no leakage and that 
the cylinder has, for illustration, a capaci¬ 
ty 1/10 as great as that of the receiver, 
the first complete down and up stroke 
will remove the 1/11 part of the air, leav¬ 
ing 10/11 in the receiver. The second 
stroke removes 1/11 of this remainder, 
that is 1/11 of 10/11 or 10/121, leaving 
100/121, and so on. So far as computa¬ 
tion goes, a constantly diminishing re¬ 
mainder, but always a remainder, would 
be left in the receiver. Practically, a good 
pump will reduce the air to an inappre¬ 
ciable quantity. 

A more perfect vacuum is obtained by 
connecting the receiver with a small up¬ 
right tube through which globules of mer¬ 
cury are falling. Successive portions of 
air are carried away between the globules 
as they pass the point of connection. 
There being no valve to open, the air is 
carried away as long as there is any left to 
expand. It is claimed that, by this method, 
the air may be removed until only 1/420,- 
000,000 of the original amount is left in 
the receiver. 

Many interesting experiments are per¬ 
formed in the vacuum of a receiver. Wa¬ 
ter boils with very little heat when re¬ 
lieved from atmospheric pressure. A 
shriveled apple swells up and becomes 
plump with the expansion of the air with¬ 
in it. A lighted candle goes out for want 
of air to burn. A mouse dies for want of 
air to breathe. 

The invention of the air-pump is cred¬ 
ited to Otto von Guericke, a German physi¬ 
cist, about the year 1650. He was stimu¬ 
lated by the experiments of Galileo and 
Pascal. He was trying to produce a vacu¬ 
um. He first attempted to pump the wa¬ 
ter out of a stout barrel, but found that air 
pressed in through the crevices. He then 
experimented by pumping water out of a 
copper globe. He soon found that, with 
a pump of sufficient delicacy and strength, 
a vacuum could be formed by pumping out 
the air directly. 

The bicycle pump is a familiar example 
of a pump used for compressing air, and 
the vacuum cleaner of one for exhausting. 
See Pump ; Air. 


AIRSHIP 


Airship. The solution of the problem 
of flight was an American achievement. 
The first airplane to fly successfully was 
built by the Wright brothers of Dayton, 
Ohio. On December 17, 1903, Orville 
Wright flew several times in this machine, 
remaining in the air from 12 to 59 sec¬ 
onds at a time and covering a maximum 
distance of 852 feet, with an engine of 
only 16 horse-power. But it was five 
years later when the Wrights were finally 
recognized as successful inventors, and 
Wilbur Wright made many exhibition 
flights in Europe. The greatest speed of 
the first Wright machine was less than 35 
miles an hour, while twenty years later 
there were airplanes fitted with engines of 
over 1,500 horse-power, capable of speeds 
of more than 200 miles an hour. Within 
that period airplane flights were made 
across the Atlantic and from Europe to 
South Africa and even Australia. The 
first of these notable flights was that of 
two Englishmen, Alcock and Brown, 
across the Atlantic in 1919, when they 
made a non-stop flight in a Vickers-Vimy 
machine in 15 hrs. 57 min. In the same 
year Lieut.-Commander Read, U. S. N., 
in a navy hydroplane, or airplane equipped 
with pontoons for supporting it in water, 
also succeeded in crossing the Atlantic; 
distance, 4,250 miles; time, 53 hrs. 34 min. 
Other great flights followed, the science 
of aviation in craft heavier than air having 
been immensely stimulated by the fight¬ 
ing and scouting experiences during the 
World War. 

Modern airplanes are capable of remark¬ 
able performances. They can carry loads 
of more than 25 tons, cover immense dis¬ 
tances regularly without stopping, and 
rise to heights above the highest moun¬ 
tains. Every day they fly from one end 
of Plurope to the other, carrying passen¬ 
gers and freight with safety in all kinds 
of weather except fog, which makes it 
difficult to land in safe spots; and in the 
United States a number of commercial 
routes have been established, while the 
U. S. mails are freely transported from 
the Atlantic coast to the Pacific along 
routes that give all the principal cities a 
regular daily air-mail service. Commercial 


airplanes are usually equipped with both 
wireless telephone and wireless telegraph 
apparatus. The aerial wire is kept rolled 
up on a drum, and is paid out by the pilot 
when it is necessary to send or to receive 
a message. Electric current is obtained 
from a generator, driven by the air rush¬ 
ing past the airplane, and speech can be 
transmitted for 50 miles or more. By this 
means the pilot can be kept informed of 
his whereabouts in the heaviest fog, and 
may even be directed to a safe landing. 
To overcome the great noise of the air¬ 
plane motor, the pilot or observer wears 
a helmet, with telephone receivers fitting 
over his ears in rubber cups. It is be¬ 
lieved to be quite possible that aircraft 
will ultimately be controlled entirely by 
wireless from the ground, and that even 
motive power may be conveyed by the same 
means from ground stations to airplanes 
in flight. 

Airplanes are of varying types, known 
chiefly by the number of their wings, or 
sets of planes, as a monoplane, biplane, 
triplane, etc. The planes are curved 
slightly, with the apex of the curve near 
the front edge of each plane. In flight 
the wings are slightly tilted to secure the 
pressure of the wind on the lower surface, 
which causes the “lift.” An internal com¬ 
bustion engine, similar in principle to the 
motor of an automobile, is used to drive 
the large wooden propeller, or air-screw, 
which either pulls or pushes the wings 
through the air and thus secures the air 
pressure below and suction above which 
result in “lift.” 

Airplane control is simple, consisting 
mainly of two levers operated by the pilot. 
An upright lever, commonly called the 
“joystick.” works the horizontal rudder 
or elevator and also the ailerons or hinged 
wing-tips. The other lever is a rudder- 
bar, operated by the pilot’s feet, and works 
the vertical rudder. Both rudders are 
carried on a framework at the rear of the 
plane. In addition to these working lev¬ 
ers there are the usual switch, ignition, and 
throttle controls for the gasoline engine. 
In starting, the airplane is run along the 
ground for some distance, gathering speed, 
and is then caused to rise against the wind 
by inclining the elevator with the joystick. 


AIRSHIP 


At any desired height a movement of the 
lever causes the airplane to straighten out 
and fly on an even keel. For turning in 
either direction, right or left, the rudder- 
bar is moved, and the wing-tips are tilted 
slightly by a similar movement of the up¬ 
right lever. In landing, the engine is shut 
off and the airplane glides downward in 
any direction desired, but is always brought 
to earth against the wind. Many acro¬ 
batic stunts are performed by experienced 
pilots, such as looping, spinning, and side¬ 
slipping. Looping, which appears to the 
uninitiated to be a sensational and danger¬ 
ous performance, is in reality a simple stunt 
and is the first to be learned by pupils. 
Thousands of young Americans were 
trained as airplane pilots during the world 
war period and were ready for active ser¬ 
vice abroad when the armistice came in 
November, 1918, while many others served 
with the army in France, in bombing, 
scouting, and combat machines. 

The record for highest altitude attained 
by airplane is held by Lieut. John A. 
MacReady, U. S. A., who at McCook field, 
Dayton, Ohio, Sept. 23, 1921, rose to a 
height of 40,800 feet. The world’s rec¬ 
ord for speed is held by Brig.-Gen. Wil¬ 
liam Mitchell, U. S. A., who flew at Mt. 
Clemens, Mich., Oct. 18, 1922, at an aver¬ 
age speed of 224.05 miles an hour in four 
heats over a one-kilometer course. An 
unofficial record of 248.5 miles an hour 
was made by Lieut. Maughan Oct. 14, 1922. 

The world record for sustained 
flight by airplane was established Oct. 
5-6, 1922, by Lieuts. John A. MacReady 
and Oakley Kelly, U. S. A., who circled 
in a large monoplane over San Diego, Cal., 
for 35 hrs. 18 min. 30 sec., without mak¬ 
ing a landing. The same aviators on 
Nov. 3-4, 1922, attempted to fly from San 
Diego to New York without a stop, but 
were compelled to land in Indiana after 
covering a distance of 2,060 miles, owing 
to a . defect in the water supply. On 
Sept. 5-6, 1922, Lieut. James H. Doolittle, 
U. S. A., flew from Jacksonville, Fla., to 
San Diego, Cal., a distance of 2,275 miles, 
in 21 hrs. 18 min., with only one stop at 
San Antonio, Tex., for fuel. 


Gliding flights, in airplanes without en¬ 
gines, were an interesting development of 
aviation in 1922. The machines were 
started by man or horse power from the 
tops of hills and remained in the air for 
a considerable time, even rising to a height 
above that of the start. German airmen 
made some very successful flights in this 
manner, but the record of the year was 
made by M. Maneyrolle, a French airman, 
who kept a monoplane in the air at Firle, 
England, Oct. 21, 1922, for 3 hrs. 22 min. 

Turning now to airships proper, that is, 
dirigible balloons or lighter-than-air ma¬ 
chines, it may be noted that Germany led 
the way in their construction and develop¬ 
ment prior to the great war, but Britain 
now has the largest fleet and biggest ves¬ 
sels of this kind. One of these, fitted up 
for passenger transport, has accommoda¬ 
tions for 50 passengers in addition to a 
crew of 27. Sleeping bunks of folding or 
Pullman type are provided for travelers, 
while the dining-room and cabin afford 
every possible comfort during the day. 
An airship of this type is capable of trav¬ 
eling from England to Australia, with 
stops at important places on the way, in 
less than two weeks. The British dirigible 
R-34, which crossed the Atlantic from 
east to west and again from west to east 
in July, 1919, holds the record for the 
longest non-stop flight by a vessel of that 
type, its record being more than 3,200 
miles. The return trip from New York 
was made in 75 hours. 

There are three main types of dirigibles, 
namely, non-rigid, semi-rigid, and rigid. 
The first consists of a balloon envelope 
with a car attached. In the second, the 
envelope is strengthened with girders, of 
aluminum or an aluminum alloy; and the 
third type consists of a framework of 
metal girders, with a series of gas-bags 
inside, attached to a rigid metal keel from 
which are suspended the cabins for pas¬ 
sengers and gondolas for the engines. 
This latter type includes the Zeppelins and 
the British and American types, which are 
copies of Zeppelins. A typical craft has a 
length of 639 feet and a diameter of 79 
feet. The hull is built up with girders of 
light alloy metal and has a triangular keel 


AIRY—AKBAR 


which forms the main corridor of the ship 
and contains water, ballast, and gasoline 
tanks, stowage room for freight, and quar¬ 
ters for the crew. Inside the hull are 19 
gas-bags, charged with approximately 
2,000,000 cubic feet of hydrogen or helium. 
A gondola suspended near the forward 
end of the keel carries one of the engines 
and the control apparatus. Two smaller 
gondolas are suspended side by side amid¬ 
ships, each carrying an engine, and near 
the rear of the keel a larger car is sus¬ 
pended, with two engines and an auxiliary 
control system. The rudders and elevating 
apparatus are at the extreme rear. Such 
a craft is capable of a wide range of travel, 
and may be used for the transportation of 
passengers, mail, and freight over long¬ 
distance routes, the chief difficulty being 
to find suitable housing, when the dirigibles 
are at rest. This is being overcome by the 
erection of mooring masts, with elevators 
for the accommodation of passengers, the 
ships being moored to the top of the mast, 
which consists of a latticewmrk tower with 
a revolving top that permits the vessel to 
swing w T ith her nose up wind. A shed to 
house such a vessel would cost at least 
half a million dollars, whereas a suitable 
mooring mast can be erected for about 
one-quarter of that amount. It also re¬ 
quires hundreds of men to berth one of 
these monster airships in a shed, or bring 
it out for flight, while half a dozen men 
can moor it safely to a mast and release 
it for service. See Zeppelin ; Balloon. 

Airy, Sir George Biddell (1801- 
1892), an English astronomer, born in 
Alnwick, England. He graduated from 
Cambridge in 1823. He held many im¬ 
portant positions, among them being: 
professor of mathematics at Cambridge, 
and director of the Greenwich Observa¬ 
tory. His work was varied in character, 
and he wrote several books on various 
subjects, among them being Mathematical 
Tracts, Treatise of Sound, Treatise on 
Magnetism, and articles on historical and 
scientific subjects. 

Aix-la-Chapelle. See Aachen. 

Ajax, a'jaks, in Greek legend, a hero 
of the Trojan War. He was a cousin of 
Achilles. At his birth Hercules wrapped 


him in a lion’s skin, making him invulner¬ 
able to the arrows of his enemies, except 
in the armpit. He is represented in Ho¬ 
mer’s Iliad as of colossal strength, “as un¬ 
moved by the shafts of his enemies as is 
an ass in a cornfield by the pelting of 
boys.” Although noted for « his size, 
strength, and courage, he was dull of intel¬ 
lect and slow of speech. During the siege 
of Troy he was a constant terror to the 
Trojans. Time and again he encountered 
Hector in single combat and came off vic¬ 
torious. He was accounted second only to 
the great Achilles. When Achilles was 
slain, his mother, Thetis, directed that his 
armor be given to him who was most de¬ 
serving. Ulysses and Ajax were the two 
claimants for the prize. Ulyssses received 
it. In his despair Ajax lost his reason. 
He slew the sheep of the Greeks, believ¬ 
ing them to be men and enemies. Realiz¬ 
ing what he had done, shame drove him 
to suicide. Where his blood sank into the 
earth, there sprang up a flower which bore 
on its leaves the first two letters of Ajax’s 
name, AI, which is also a Greek exclama¬ 
tion signifying “woe.” This flower was 
the hyacinth. A similar story was told 
of a youth, Hyacinthus. 

Many stories are told in the Iliad of 
the exploits of Ajax, of his strength and 
prowess. Perhaps the best known is the 
incident of his struggle to protect the dead 
body of Patroclus from Hector, because 
it is at this time that Ajax utters his fa¬ 
mous prayer for light. Zeus has envel¬ 
oped the scene of battle with clouds and 
darkness, and Ajax exclaims: 

Lord of earth and air! 
Oh, king! oh, father! hear my humble prayer! 
Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore; 
Give me to see and Ajax asks no more; 

If Greece must perish we thy will obey. 

But let us perish in the face of day. 

This prayer is often quoted and alluded 
to in literature. In Longfellow’s poem, 
The Goblet of Life, occurs the line, 

The prayer of Ajax was for light. 

Akbar, ak'bar (1542-1605), an em¬ 
peror of Hindustan, one of the best and 
most famous of modern Asiatic rulers. 
His father, deprived of his empire by 
usurpers, lived in exile for twelve years, 
recovering his throne oniy a year before 


AKRON—ALABAMA 


his death. Akbar was but fourteen years of 
age at this time and for four years ruled 
under a regent minister. With the power 
in his own hands he soon added to the 
few provinces then subject to the throne 
of Delhi, the whole of Hindustan north 
of the Deccan. He ruled with wisdom 
and justice, showing talent in organiz¬ 
ing his vast dominions. Akbar had his 
territories accurately surveyed and statis¬ 
tics taken in order that taxes might 
be adjusted with fairness. He constructed 
roads, introduced a police system, and es¬ 
tablished a uniform system of weights and 
measures. He forbade child marriage, 
permitted widows to marry, and endeavor¬ 
ed to put an end to the practice of burn¬ 
ing widows on the graves of their hus¬ 
bands. He punished intoxication, though 
he permitted the use of wine. He was 
fond of religious inquiry, even attempt¬ 
ing to found a new religion based on his 
own ideas. He established schools for 
both Hindus and Mohammedans, and did 
much to encourage the advance of litera¬ 
ture. Akbar’s later years were embittered 
by the death of two sons and the disloyal¬ 
ty of a third, who was suspected of being 
instrumental in his father’s death. See 
India. 

Ak'ron, a manufacturing city of Ohio, 
the county seat of Summit County. It is 
situated on the Ohio Canal, thirty-five 
mile south of Cleveland. The Little 
Cuyahoga River furnishes water power. 
Natural gas is found and there are coal 
mines in the vicinity. The industries of 
Akron include one of the world’s largest 
match factories, and more rubber tire’and 
general rubber goods factories than any 
other city in the world. There are also man¬ 
ufactories of flour and cereals, hoisting and 
mining machinery, farm implements, fur¬ 
naces, pottery and sew r er pipe. Among the 
educational institutions are Buchtel College, 
a library, and fine public schools. Akron is 
about five hundred feet above Lake Erie. 
There are many small lakes in the vicinity, 
and as the city is on the Baltimore & Ohio, 
the Erie, and other railroads, and is trav¬ 
ersed by electric railways, the lakes are 
easy of access and the district is popular as 
a summer resort. The population of Ak¬ 
ron by the census of 1920 was 208,435. 


Aktaeon, ak-te'on, in Greek legend, a 
son of King Cadmus. See Diana. 

Alabama, one of the Gulf States. It 
is bounded landward by Mississippi, Ten¬ 
nessee, Georgia, and Florida. A western 
extension of Florida occupies three- 
fourths of Alabama’s natural seacoast. 
The general shape of the state is oblong 
with an extreme length of 336 miles. 
Greatest width, 200 miles. Area, 52,250 
square miles. The Tennessee River flows 
across the northern part of Alabama, and 
is a part of jthe drainage system of the 
Mississippi River. With this exception 
the waters of Alabama flow directly into 
the Gulf. The system of naming rivers, in¬ 
herited from the Indians, is peculiar and 
a little confusing. Instead of one name 
for the main stream throughout its course 
we find, for instance, that the Etowa and 
the Oostenaula form the Coosa; the Coo¬ 
sa and the Tallapoosa—the names once 
mastered are quite musical—form the 
Alabama; the Alabama and the Tombig- 
bee form the Mobile, forty-five miles long. 
The state has fine waterways. Steamboats 
ascend the Alabama and its largest tribu¬ 
tary to a distance of 800 miles. The Tom- 
bigbee River is navigable for 500 miles. 

Climate. The highest point in the 
state is 2,407 feet above sea level. The 
healthfulness of the climate increases with 
the altitude. The upland towns have 
acquired no little reputation as winter re¬ 
sorts for northern invalids. Temperature 
varies with season and elevation. The 
limits of winter temperature are placed at 
18 degrees and 82 degrees Fahrenheit. 
In summer the thermometer ranges from 
60 degrees to 105 degrees. 

Agriculture. The surface may be di¬ 
vided roughly into four agricultural belts 
of unequal and varying width, crossing 
the state from east to west. The most 
northerly, a region of cereals and fruits, 
follows the sweep of the Tennessee. It 
is a country of red clay and heavy timber 
—oak, poplar, chestnut, hickory, and elm. 
Oats, corn, wheat, clover, and timothy 
thrive. Fruits, both orchard and small 
fruits, including apples, pears, and es¬ 
pecially peaches, do well. This is the 
nursery section of the state. Between 200 
and 300 cars of nursery stock, including 




ALABAMA 


a large number of young apple trees, and 
large shipments of roses and other orna¬ 
mental shrubs, are. sent out each year from 
Huntsville. 

Minerals. The mineral region occu¬ 
pies the northeastern part of the state, 
extending southward to Columbus, Ga. 
Extensive deposits of iron and coal occur 
in this section and here mining is the most 
important industry. Alabama is the third 
state in the production of iron ore, being 
exceeded by Minnesota and Michigan, the 
annual output exceeding 6,000,000 long 
tons. The state ranks seventh in the pro¬ 
duction of bituminous coal with an annual 
output of about 17,000,000 tons. Graphite 
is found in large quantities and it is esti¬ 
mated that Alabama furnished over 60 
per cent of the domestic graphite used in 
the World War. 

Manufactures. The development of 
mining and related manufactures has been 
rapid since 1900. The coal and iron ore 
are in close proximity so that the ore is 
converted into pig iron and steel with only 
a slight expense for transportation. Birm¬ 
ingham is the chief center of this industry 
and one of the leading iron-producing cen¬ 
ters of the country. About one-third the 
coal is made into coke and Alabama ranks 
second in the production of this com¬ 
modity. The manufacture of lumber and 
lumber products is considered the leading 
industry. During the World War ship¬ 
building at Mobile and Chickasaw re¬ 
ceived an impetus that extended to 1920. 
There has been a marked development of 
hydro-electric power, which is employed 
for lighting and manufacturing purposes. 

Transportation. The state is tra¬ 
versed by approximately 6,000 miles of 
railways. The chief lines include the Mo¬ 
bile and Ohio, the Southern, the Louisville 
and Nashville, the Seaboard Air Line, the 
Atlantic Coast Line, the Central of Georgia 
and the Frisco lines. Birmingham, Mont¬ 
gomery and Mobile, are the chief railroad 
centers. The Tombigbee and the Warrior 
rivers have been canalized and afford 
water transportation from the center of the 
mining district to tidewater at Mobile. 
Government self-propelling barges now 
make their way down the Mississippi to 


New Orleans thence through the Gulf to 
Mobile, and up these rivers to Birming¬ 
ham, and Cordova, in the heart of the Ala¬ 
bama coal fields. Private owned barges 
carry a heavy tonnage of lumber, coal and 
iron and steel products. 

Population. According to the census 
of 1920 Alabama had 2,347,295 inhabi¬ 
tants, distributed among races as follows: 
whites, 1,447,032; Negroes, 900,652; In¬ 
dians, 405; all others 85. Over two- 
thirds the population is rural. The fol¬ 
lowing cities have over 10,000 inhabitants: 
Birmingham, 178,606; Mobile, 60,777 ; 
Montgomery, 43,464; Bessemer, 18,674; 
Anniston, 17,734; Selma, 15,589 ; Gads¬ 
den, 14,734; Tuscaloosa, 11,996. 

Education. The present school system 
dates from the adoption of the new con¬ 
stitution in 1875. There is a permanent 
school fund derived chiefly from a 3 mill 
state tax and a sale of school lands set 
apart by Congress. There is also a sys¬ 
tem of county and district taxation for 
school purposes. Between 1907 and 1911 
a system of county high schools with lib¬ 
eral appropriations was established. In 
1919, at the invitation of a state school 
commission, the United States Bureau of 
Education made a survey of the educa¬ 
tional system of the state. This was fol¬ 
lowed by the enactment by the Legisla¬ 
ture of the School Code of Alabama which 
provided for a school council of education 
for the purpose of co-ordinating the efforts 
of the University of Alabama at Tusca¬ 
loosa, the Alabama Polytechnic Institute 
at Auburn, and the Alabama Technical 
Institute and College for Women at Mon- 
tevallo by assigning to each special lines 
of work in higher education. The public 
school system is gaining in efficiency from 
year to year and illiteracy is decreasing. 

There are normal schools for whites 
and negroes and schools for the deaf, 
dumb and blind. An agricultural school 
is also maintained in each congressional 
district. Among the institutions main¬ 
tained by religious denominations are Saint 
Bernard College at Saint Bernard and 
Spring Hill College at Spring Hill (both 
Roman Catholic) ; Birmingham-Southern 
College at Birmingham (Methodist Epis- 


ALABAMA 


copal, South) ; The Woman’s College of 
Alabama (Methodist Episcopal, South), 
Montgomery; Judson College for Women 
at Marion and Howard College for Men 
at East Lake (Baptist). Tuskegee Nor¬ 
mal and Industrial Institute is described 
under its title. 

Government. The Constitution now 
in force was adopted in 1901. The execu¬ 
tive department consists of a governor, lieu¬ 
tenant governor, attorney-general, Secre¬ 
tary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, 
commissioner of agriculture and industries, 
and superintendent of education. Each is 
elected by popular vote for four years. 
None of these officers is eligible for re- 
election and the governor is not eligible 
by appointment or election to any office in 
the state or to the United States Senate 
during his term of office or within one year 
after its expiration. 

The legislature consists of two houses— 
a senate and house of representatives, the 
members of each being elected for four 
years. The number of senators cannot 
exceed one-third the number of represen¬ 
tatives. The governor has the power of 
veto but the legislature may pass a bill 
over his veto by two-thirds majority. The 
county is the unit for local government. 

Suffrage is restricted to those who can 
read or write any article of the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States, and have 
worked or been regularly employed in some 
occupation for the greater part of the year 
preceding registration, or who own and 
have paid taxes on property valued at $300 
or more. Those who have served in the 
army or navy of the United States or the 
Confederate States of America, and those 
who are physically unable to read or write 
are exempt from these qualifications. 

History. The first white people to 
visit the state were doubtless the Spaniards 
under De Soto. They found a courageous 
Indian tribe well settled in permanent vil¬ 
lages. The house of one chief is said to 
have been one hundred and twenty feet 
in length, and a temple or council house 
on the Savannah was as large. Mobile 
was fortified by the French in 1702 and 
was occupied by a settlement in 1711. It 
was the capital of Louisiana for fifteen 


years. When the country came into pos¬ 
session of the United States, Alabama was 
regarded as a part of Georgia and then 
as a part of the newly organized territory 
of Mississippi. In 1813 General Jackson 
punished the Creek Indians severely in the 
Horse Shoe Bend of the Tallapoosa. In 
1817 Alabama was organized as a terri¬ 
tory, and was admitted to the Union with 
its present boundaries in 1819. In 1847 
the capital was permanently located at 
Montgomery. 

Statistics. The following statistics are 
the latest to be had from trustworthy 
sources: 


Land area, square miles. 51,279 

Water area, square miles. 719 

Forest area, acres. 20,000,000 

Population (1920) . 2,347,295 

White . 1,447,032 

Negro. 901,142 

Foreign born . 17,662 

Chief Cities: 

Birmingham. 178,270 

Mobile. 60,777 

Montgomery. 43,464 

Bessemer. 18,674 

Anniston. 17,734 

Number of counties. 67 

Members of state senate. 35 

Members of house of representatives 106 

Salary of Governor. $7,500 

Representatives in Congress. 10 

Assessed valuation of property.$675,162,002 

Bonded indebtedness . $15,351,702 

Farm area, acres. 19,576,856 

Improved land, acres. 9,893,404 

Cotton, bales (500 lb.). 635,000 

Corn, bushels. 62,651,000 

Wheat, bushels. 210,000 

Oats, bushels. 6,776,000 

Potatoes, bushels . 2,400,000 

Tobacco, pounds. 1,500,000 

Domestic Animals: 

Horses . 158,000 

Mules . 322,000 

Milk cows . 507,000 

Other cattle . 791,000 

Sheep. 123,000 

Swine. 1,861,000 

Manufacturing establishments . 3,654 

Capital invested.$455,592,733 

Operatives . 107,159 

Raw material used.$300,664,290 

Output of manufactures.$492,730,895 

Coal mined, tons. 19,184,962 

Iron ore mined, tons. 6,121,087 

Pig iron output, tons. 2,654,179 

Miles of railway. 5,376 

Teachers in public schools. 12,517 

Pupils enrolled . 568.294 













































ALABAMA —ALAMO 


Alabama, The, a famous privateer of 
the Confederate States. The Alabama 
was a wooden steam-sloop built for the 
Confederacy at Birkenhead near Liver¬ 
pool, England. The English government 
was warned by the United States minister, 
Charles Francis Adams, that a suspicious 
sloop, known in the shipyard as No. 290, 
was being fitted with port holes and 
heavy guns, and that circumstances indi¬ 
cated its being built for a privateer. 
In July, 1862, the sloop steamed out of 
the Mersey on an alleged trial trip. Once 
outside, it was provided with an arma¬ 
ment of cannon and a supply of military 
stores. Captain Raphael Semmes, an able 
seaman, took command with a crew of 
eighty British sailors, and at once began 
the capture of American merchant ships. 
Owing to the blockade of the American 
coast, the Alabama w r as never able to enter 
a Confederate harbor, but she captured 
and sold or sank sixty-five vessels valued 
at $6,000,000, before she was run to har¬ 
bor at Cherbourg, France, and sunk. At 
the close of the Civil War the United 
States presented to the British govern¬ 
ment a claim for damages, known as the 
“Alabama Claims.” In 1871 the matter 
was referred to an arbitration tribunal 
composed of five members. The tribunal 
sat at Geneva, and awarded the United 
States $15,500,000 with which to pay the 
owners of the vessels destroyed. 

Alabaster, a fine-grained, soft form of 
gypsum. It occurs in various colors, as 
red, yellow, and gray; but the traditional 
alabaster is snowy white. When first 
quarried it is so soft that it may be cut 
w r ith a knife or shaped on a lathe, but 
on exposure to the air it hardens, until it 
is like marble. It has long been used 
for artistic purposes. Priceless alabaster 
vases, statues, ointment boxes, and even 
columns, remnants of the days of Roman 
splendor, are still to be found in art mu¬ 
seums. Alabaster cement was used by art¬ 
ists to close the joints in marble work and 
in making casts. Egypt was celebrated 
for alabaster; the swathed remains of the 
wealthy Egyptians were laid away not in¬ 
frequently in a sarcophagus of this ma¬ 
terial. Sir John Sloane of London paid 


$10,000 for a fine specimen covered with 
hieroglyphics. Alabaster quarries are 
found in many parts of Europe. The ala¬ 
baster of Florence, Italy, long the art cen¬ 
ter of the world, is especially pure in col¬ 
or and fine of grain. Oriental alabaster 
is a stone found in caverns, and is formed 
chiefly of lime, like the stalagmites and 
stalactites of Mammoth Cave. It is a 
translucent stone, somewhat like onyx, 
and of a milky white or yellowish color. 

Aladdin, a-lad'in, the hero of the story 
of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, in 
The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. 
Aladdin is a poor boy in China who be¬ 
comes possessed of a magic lamp. If he 
rubs it, a powerful jinnee or spirit ap¬ 
pears, who is entirely at the service of 
him who owns the lamp. Aladdin be¬ 
comes rich through the aid of his lamp. 
He wins a princess for his wife. He has 
a palace built for her in a single night, 
but one window is left unfinished which 
no one can complete to match the others. 
At last the original owner of the lamp 
attempts to regain it by offering to ex¬ 
change new lamps for old. Aladdin’s 
mother sells the magic lamp, and various 
troubles ensue. Aladdin finally recovers it, 
kills the first owner, moves his palace to 
Cathay, and, to crown all, becomes sultan. 

Many proverbial sayings have arisen 
from the story of Aladdin. “To finish 
Aladdin’s window,” means to complete 
what has been begun by some more ca¬ 
pable person. “To exchange old lamps for 
new,” is an allusion to the mother’s giv¬ 
ing away the rusty magic lamp for a new 
and useless one. Aladdin’s lamp is men¬ 
tioned frequently in literature. Some¬ 
times the expression is used figuratively 
for the imagination, thus Lowell: 

When I was a beggarly boy, 

And lived in a cellar damp, 

I had not a friend nor a toy. 

But I had Aladdin’s lamp; 

When I could not sleep for cold, 

I had fire enough in my brain, 

And builded, with roofs of gold, 

My beautiful castles in Spain! 

Alamo, a'la-mo, a fort at San Antonio, 
Texas. It was originally a mission house 
of the Franciscan fathers, built about 
1722. An open, oblong space of two and 


ALAND ISLANDS—ALARIC 


one-half acres, containing the buildings 
of the mission, was inclosed by a wall 
eight feet high and thirty-three inches in 
thickness. The outer wall, being of adobe, 
has fallen; but the inner buildings still 
stand and they bear appropriate inscrip¬ 
tions. The Alamo is noted in the war of 
Texan independence. Santa Anna, with 
an army variously estimated at from 1,500 
to 4,000 Mexicans, besieged a band of 140 
Texans, among whom were Colonels Dav¬ 
id Crockett and James Bowie. The Tex¬ 
ans held the fort for two weeks. When 
finally taken by assault, March 6, 1836, 
only six men remained alive. They were 
immediately butchered by order of Santa 
Anna. During the remainder of the war, 
“Remember the Alamo!” became the Tex¬ 
an war cry. See Santa Anna; Crockett. 

Aland Islands, a group of islands num¬ 
bering about three hundred, lying at the 
entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia. The 
islands take their name from the largest 
of the group. Their total area is about 
550 square miles. The islands originally 
belonged to Sweden, but were lost to Rus¬ 
sia in 1809. Russia held them until 1918, 
when they were occupied by Germany; but 
she was forced to evacuate after the sign¬ 
ing of the armistice. The importance of 
the Aland group from a military point of 
view has been the cause of the various 
quarrels waged over it. Russia erected 
fortifications here in the reign of Nicholas 
I, but they were destroyed by Anglo- 
French forces in 1854. After the outbreak 
of the World War, Russia again fortified 
the islands, 1915. Sweden protested 
against this move by the Russians, who 
insisted that the forts were only temporary. 
After the Russian revolution of 1917, how¬ 
ever, attention turned toward the larger 
question of the sovereignty of the islands. 
The plebiscite of December, 1917, indi¬ 
cated that the Alanders, who are largely 
of Swedish descent, were highly favorable 
to reunion with Sweden. By the treaty of 
Brest Litovsk and the treaty between Ger¬ 
many and Finland, the fortifications were 
ordered removed; but the Bolsheviki de¬ 
layed the removal. The Finnish govern¬ 
ment opposed the union of the Alands to 
Sweden, and proposed to make of the 


islands a separate Finnish province, pass¬ 
ing a bill to that effect in 1920. There¬ 
upon, the Alanders appealed to Great 
Britain, France, Italy and the United 
States for protection of their right of self 
determination. The case was later referred 
to the Peace Conference; the Conference 
refused to consider the case, and passed it on 
to the League of Nations. Finland, mean¬ 
time, was protesting that the whole Aland 
question was domestic, and that the League 
was not competent to intervene in Finnish 
affairs. The committee appointed by the 
League of Nations to investigate the Aland 
problem reported in June, 1921; and in 
the same month the Council decided that 
the islands were to belong to Finland; that 
they were to have full autonomy; and that 
from the military angle they were to be 
neutralized. 

Alaric, al'a-rik (376P-410), king of 
the Visigoths. The name is from the 
Gothic al reiks, all ruler. The date of his 
birth is uncertain, but Alaric was born on 
the island of Peuce in the Danube. He 
belonged to a princely family, members 
of a Gothic horde in the Danubian prov¬ 
inces of the Roman Empire. In 394 we 
find Alaric, at the head of a body of Goth¬ 
ic auxiliaries, employed by Emperor Theo¬ 
dosius the Great in putting down a revolt 
at the head of the Adriatic, in what is 
now Austrian territory. 

Theodosius, dying, left his empire to 
be ruled jointly by his two sons—Arca- 
dius to rule the east at Constantinople; 
Honorius to rule the west at Ravenna. 
Both were weak. Alaric was declared 
king of the Visigoths and threw off alle¬ 
giance to the empire. He began a series 
of invasions. He entered Greece in 396, 
but was met by Stilicho, a huge Vandal 
in the service of Honorius, and was com¬ 
pelled to withdraw. Seemingly to keep 
him still, Alaric was made prefect of a 
large district on the Danube. 

In 400 Alaric appeared in Northern 
Italy at the head of a large force, but was 
defeated again by Stilicho. 

It is not known to what extent Alaric 
was influenced by Christianity and by 
civilization. He was a leader of ability 
and ambition. He taught the hordes of 


ALASKA 


Europe the road to Rome, and paved the 
way for subsequent invasions. 

See Goths; Stilicho. 

Alaska, a territory of the United 
States, occupying the northwest corner of 
North America. The name is Indian, 
signifying a great land. The central por¬ 
tion is a vast rectangle situated between 
the North Pacific and the Arctic Oceans, 
and extending from Bering Sea to the 
141st degree of west longitude. A long 
strip of coast follows the Pacific 500 miles 
to the southeast, and an arc of islands 
1,000 miles long tails off into the south¬ 
west, almost to Kamchatka. If, as sug¬ 
gested by Mr. Brooks, of the United 
States Geological Survey, a map of Alas¬ 
ka be laid on a diagram of the United 
States, the southeast extremity of the coast 
strip will fall near Atlanta, Georgia, and 
the tip of the Aleutian Islands will fall 
at San Francisco; while the main part of 
the territory fills a quadrangle extending 
from Oklahoma to Lake of the Woods, 
and from Chicago to the eastern border 
of Colorado. From Sitka to the mouth of 
the Yukon River is a sea voyage of 2,000 
miles. 

Topography. The area of Alaska, ac¬ 
cording to latest surveys, is 586,400 sq. m. 
It is hot easy to characterize the surface 
of so vast a region in a few words. The 
Arctic coast is a tundra region of swamps 
and mossy moors. It is terminated at the 
west by a mountainous region, situated 
between Pt. Barrow, the most northerly 
point of the continent, and the wide 
marshes of the lower Yukon. This tun¬ 
dra region, like that of Asia, is frozen 
to a great depth. Each summer the sur¬ 
face thaws out to a depth of two or three 
feet only. South of this Arctic coast 
plain lies a vast interior prairie and forest 
region large enough for several states. It 
is drained chiefly by the Yukon, one of the 
great rivers of the world, which gathers 
the waters of northwestern British Ameri¬ 
ca and sweeps westward in a flood to 
Bering Sea. Six hundred miles above 
its mouth it is a mile in width. It is ice 
bound during a large part of the year, 
but during a. short summer it is navigated 
by no less than forty steamboats, trading 


with the mining camps on its upper waters. 
Extensive tracts are described as well tim¬ 
bered ; others as covered with rich grasses 
and beautiful flowers. 

The Aleutian Islands are of little im¬ 
portance. They coast the deep basin of 
the Pacific for a distance of a thousand 
miles, dividing it from Bering Sea. Over 
sixty of these islands are of recent and 
volcanic origin. Ten of these volcanoes 
are still active. The islands are inhab¬ 
ited by Aleut Indians who live chiefly by 
hunting and fishing. They are almost 
treeless, but are well covered with grass 
and shrubs. These islands are exceeding¬ 
ly interesting to naturalists. Many of the 
flowers, birds, and animals are not found 
elsewhere. Close to the Alaskan main¬ 
land, there is a large wooded island called 
Kadiac, especially noted for the Kadiac 
fox and bear. The latter is a sort of 
brown bear, resembling in some respects 
the grizzly. It is not only the largest 
and most powerful member of the bear 
family, but it is also the largest flesh-eat¬ 
ing animal known. 

From Kadiac eastward to Mount St. 
Elias, the coast grows more and more 
mountainous. The great angle of the Pa¬ 
cific coast is one of the scenic regions 
of the world. The North American con¬ 
tinent attains its greatest height in this 
region. There are mountains twice as 
high as the Alps, and glaciers beside which 
those of Switzerland are mere driblets. 
Stretching northward from Cross Sound, 
a stupendous range follows the sea. Peak 
after peak seems to rise from the very 
ocean. Crillon, Fairweather, Vancouver, 
Cook, and other mighty fellows, there they 
stand. Old Mt. St. Elias, the landmark 
of the sailor, looms up 18,024 feet. Mt. 
Logan in the background carries a snow 
cloak and cap 19,550 feet high. Even in 
midsummer, the region of perpetual snow 
is only 2,000 feet above the sea. Behind the 
mountains mentioned, a second range, a 
continuation of the familiar Cascade 
Mountains of the Pacific coast, trends 
northwest and terminates in an elevated 
region called the Alaskan Mountains. Mt. 
McKinley, the central peak, is 20,460 feet 
high. It is not only the highest mountain 


ALASKA 


in Alaska, but the highest peak in North 
America. Far out at sea, these elevated 
snow fields, surmounted by lofty peaks, 
look like fleecy clouds on the distant hori¬ 
zon; but viewed more clearly as the ship 
approaches, they form a scene of awe¬ 
inspiring, solitary grandeur. As the tourist 
realizes the magnitude of the rock masses 
that underlie this glittering waste of snow, 
and the irresistible nature of the forces 
that crumpled and heaved them there, he 
realizes that his steamer is but a nutshell 
bobbing on the sea. 

During geologic ages, the coast line has 
sunk until the sea now washes the moun¬ 
tain walls. Glaciers have worn gorges 
and deep inlets like the fiords of Norway. 
If we except the ice caps of the polar re¬ 
gions, the greatest glaciers in the world 
are here. Each bay, arm, and inlet re¬ 
ceives its stream of ice. Glacier Bay re¬ 
ceives the wonderful Muir Glacier. The 
face of this glacier is a perpendicular wall 
of ice two hundred feet high and three 
miles wide; and yet it is a mere rivulet 
compared with others. At the head of 
Lynn Canal two hundred miles inland we 
find Skagway, Dyea, the White Pass, and 
Chilkoot Pass, famous as marking the 
beginning of the overland journey to Daw¬ 
son and the Klondike. South of Lynn 
Canal the seacoast is clothed with magnifi¬ 
cent forests of pine, cedar, fir, and spruce, 
a continuation of the coast forests of 
Washington and of British Columbia. 

History. Alaskan waters were explored 
for Russia by Vitus Bering in 1728, and 
for England by Captain Cook in 1776. 
The Russians organized fur and trading 
companies with posts at Kadiac Island and 
elsewhere. They also established numer¬ 
ous missions among the natives; but the 
early history of Alaska centers at the in¬ 
teresting old town of Sitka. It is situated 
on an island near the entrance to Lynn 
Harbor. In early days, before San Fran¬ 
cisco was thought of, the Russian-Ameri- 
can Fur Company aimed to build here a 
commercial and manufacturing city. Iron, 
coal, and copper were mined. Bricks were 
burned. Bells were cast. The indolent 
Spanish of southern California bought 
their plow shares, hoes, and hatchets from 


Sitka makers. The first steamships built 
on the Pacific slid into its waters from 
the shipyards of Sitka; the first foundries 
and machine shops on the American 
shore of the Pacific were here. The first 
miners, the “forty-niners,” that rushed to 
California to find gold, bought woolen 
clothing, picks, shovels, lumber, dried fish, 
and woodenware produced at Sitka. The 
company aimed to build up a trade be¬ 
tween Alaska and China and Japan, but 
lost money in the long run. 

Sitka declined. During the Civil War 
Russia was at some pains and consid¬ 
erable expense to send war vessels to our 
Atlantic border on a friendly visit at a 
time when we were heartily glad to shake 
the Russian bear by the paw. There 
seemed just a chance that England might 
take a hand in our local quarrel, and we 
were glad to have a strong neighbor on 
our side. At the close of the war Secre¬ 
tary of State Seward, with the consent of 
Congress, took Alaska off Russia’s hands 
for $7,200,000. This was supposed to be 
more than a liberal price, indeed to be a 
squaring of accounts. The American flag 
was hoisted at Sitka, October 18, 1867. 

Gold Discoveries. The discovery of 
gold in the Yukon Valley in 1896-7, and at 
Cape Nome two years later, attracted an 
immense horde of gold seekers. A terri¬ 
torial government was set up in 1900, and 
Sitka was made the capital. In 1905 the 
capital was removed to Nome, but in 1906 
Juneau was made the capital. In 1903 
the Alaskan Boundary Commission met in 
London to establish the boundary line be¬ 
tween Alaska and Canada. The district 
about the head of Lynn Canal, the chief 
object of contention, was awarded the 
American claimants. In 1904 Sitka was 
united with Seattle by an ocean cable. 

Alaskan gold was found, first of all, 
in the region about Lynn Canal. Pros¬ 
pectors soon located the precious metal in 
the valley of the upper Yukon, where the 
Canadian city of Dawson now stands. A 
stampede for the gold fields set in. In 
the summer seasons miners went up the 
Yukon River with their outfits. In the 
winter they landed their pack horses, 
mining tools, and supplies at Skagway, a 


ALASKA 


new town at the head of the Lynn Canal. 
The only way of reaching the interior lay 
through mountain passes above the snow 
line. Both men and beasts of burden en¬ 
dured incredible hardships in effecting a 
passage and many lives were lost. In 1899 
a railway of 112 miles was constructed. To 
give some idea of the mighty struggle that 
went on here, it is sufficient to say that 
the builders of the railway were obliged to 
remove the frozen bodies of over 2,000 
pack horses before they could grade 
through White Horse Pass. 

Cities. The grand tour of Alaska may 
now be made in comparative comfort. Pas¬ 
sengers land from the Pacific steamers at 
Skagway. They go by rail from Skagway 
to White Horse. They are then conveyed, 
in summer by steamer, in winter by four- 
horse sleighs, to Dawson, a distance of 
three hundred and thirty miles. Geo¬ 
graphically Dawson is a Canadian city; 
commercially it is a part of Alaska. It is 
now by no means a rude mining camp. 
With the wealth derived from gold 
mining, a well-built city has sprung up. 
Electric lights, expensive waterworks, 
churches, theaters, club houses, banks, ho¬ 
tels, a postoffice, public schools, and ele¬ 
gant houses are in keeping with the means 
and liberality of a city assessed at 
$11,000,000. Telephones, electric lines, 
and short railways run to the surrounding 
mines. When the tourist is ready to con¬ 
tinue his journey, he embarks on a well- 
appointed steamer at a busy wharf for a 
journey of 1,600 miles down the Yukon 
to St. Michael’s, or to Nome on Bering 
Sea. The trip is described as an attractive 
one in summer. The river passes through 
extensive evergreen and poplar forests and 
vast tangles of luxuriant grasses. When 
the steamer swings up to the bank to 
transfer freight, the passengers go ashore 
and gather wild flowers, ferns, columbines, 
iris, yellow pond lilies, and lupines, or 
snatch a handful of the wild strawberries, 
raspberries, or huckleberries that grow in 
profusion. The Yukon is open about five 
months in the year, from May to October. 
At other times it is traversed by dog trains 
carrying only mails and articles of dire 
necessity. The mail carrier of Fort Yu¬ 


kon receives $2,000 a round trip for his 
dog train service. The sledge is drawn 
by a long string of half tamed dogs de¬ 
scended from the grey wolf of Alaska. 
London’s Call of the Wild gives a vivid 
picture of this life. 

Nome, on a fine harbor of Bering Sea, 
two hundred miles across a bay from the 
mouth of the Yukon, has a population of 
several thousand and is apparently a per¬ 
manent commercial center. The descrip¬ 
tion given above of Dawson may be re¬ 
peated on a larger scale for Nome. In¬ 
dications of wealth are evident in public 
buildings, schools, and houses, and well- 
kept lawns. A network of short railways 
connects the city with various gold mines. 
The plans of railway builders contemplate 
a line via Dawson to connect with the 
Skagway line and the railway system of 
northwestern Canada. Railway projectors, 
not mere dreamers, say that, some day, 
not so far distant, the Trans-Siberian rail¬ 
way of Russia will be extended to Bering 
Strait to meet an American line, and that, 
by means of a steam ferry or a tunnel, 
through trains may yet run from New 
York to Paris and Petrograd. 

Climate. Like Siberia, of which it is 
an eastward continuation, Alaska contains 
both arctic and north temperate areas. 
The average temperature of the Arctic 
coast is below freezing. In the Yukon 
Valley a winter temperature of 50 degrees 
below zero may be expected for weeks at 
a time, and yet tracts farther south are 
said to have a more moderate winter, sel¬ 
dom ranging below zero. Statements as 
to the mildness of the climate of the Alas¬ 
kan coast are difficult to believe, until it 
is remembered that a 2,000 mile arc from 
the tip of the Aleutian Isles around the 
North Pacific, by way of Sitka to the 
southeasterly termination at Dixon’s Inlet, 
is in the latitude of the British Isles. Sit¬ 
ka is, in fact, on the parallel of Aberdeen, 
Copenhagen, and Moscow. An east and 
west line, drawn through the most north¬ 
erly point of the arc mentioned, just 
misses the north end of Scotland, and 
passes through the southern tip of Norway, 
through the most fertile part of Sweden, 
and on by way of St. Petersburg. The 


ALBANIA 


temperature is modified greatly by the Ja¬ 
pan Current, corresponding in the Pacific, 
though in a feeble way, to the Gulf Stream 
in the Atlantic, with this difference, that 
the North Pacific is more effectually 
shielded from the chilling influences of 
Arctic currents whether of wind or of wa¬ 
ter. At Sitka the summers are always 
cool. The winter temperature seldom 
drops to zero. It is one of the rainiest 
places in the world, outside of the tropics. 

Agriculture. A number of the Aleu¬ 
tian Islands and certain districts of the 
interior are clothed in summer with luxu¬ 
riant grasses. There are great possibilities 
of raising cattle. In some sections, particu¬ 
larly in a shorter valley south of the Yu¬ 
kon, these grasses cure on the stalk into ex¬ 
cellent hay, on which cattle may feed all 
winter. The climate and shelter are such 
that cattle are able to care for themselves 
the year around. It is predicted freely 
that portions of Alaska will become 
known as famous grazing regions, equal 
to Texas and Montana. Mowing ma¬ 
chines are already in use along the mid¬ 
dle Yukon. Reindeer have been intro¬ 
duced into the north by the United States 
government. It is said that cereals may 
be raised in favored localities. Hardy 
vegetables of all sorts do “well, and are 
beginning to be raised for local consump¬ 
tion. Apple trees still yield sour fruit in 
the old gardens of the Russian missions 
along the coast. Small fruits of all sorts, 
strawberries, currants, gooseberries, and 
Md-fashioned flowers grow in profusion. 
Tourists speak of the pansies with rich 
colors. 

Minerals. The extent and value of the 
mineral deposits are not fully known and 
surveys continuing over several years will 
be necessary to ascertain these facts. Coal 
of excellent quality is mined in many lo¬ 
calities. There is an abundance of low 
grade iron ore. Copper, lead and petro¬ 
leum are present in large quantities. 

Gold shipments to the United States in 
1922 were valued at $6,881,020, while the 
total shipments for that year were valued 
at $6,986,769. 

Other Products. Alaska has long 
been noted for fine furs (Sea Seal). The 


fisheries are the most important industry. 
Herring and Cod are taken in large quan¬ 
tities and the salmon fisheries are the most 
extensive in the world, employing, in 1920, 
24,423 men, and yielding over $10,000,000 
of canned salmon yearly. The total value 
of the fisheries in 1920 was $41,492,124. 

In January, 1914, Congress authorized 
the building of 1,000 miles of railroad in 
Alaska, and appropriated $35,000,000 for 
the purpose. This was one of the great¬ 
est engineering feats ever undertaken by 
the government, and it involved, before it 
was completed, the spending of a total 
sum of $56,000,000. The road was com¬ 
pleted in 1922 ; and there are in Alaska, 
besides the government road, about 500 
miles of privately owned railroad. 


Statistics : 

Population (1920). 54,899 

Natives . 27,883 

Chief Towns: 

Juneau . 3,058 

Ketchikan . 2,458 

Anchorage . 1,856 

Sitka . 1,175 

Fairbanks . 1,155 

Nome .. . .. 852 

Members of Senate . 8 

Members of House of Representatives 16 

Imports .$23,625,161 

Exports . 36,775,870 

Reindeer . 216,000 

Seal in herds . 552,718 

Fox catch (1921) . 1,621 

Tin, tons . 16 

Platinum metals, ounces . 1,477 

Lead, tons . 875 

Copper, tons . 35,000 

Silver, value .$ 1,097,000 

Coal, tons . 61,111 

Schools, Indian and white . 132 


Albania. The geographical district 
called Albania is composed of the Turkish 
provinces of Scutari and Janina, and parts 
of Monastir and Kossovo. It has an area 
of between 10,500 and 11,500 square miles 
and an estimated population of 1,400,000. 
The largest town is Scutari, with a popu¬ 
lation of 32,000; Durazzo, the provisional 
capital, has a population of 5,000. 

The country is in every way primitive. 
There are few schools; banks or currency 
are unknown; great tracts of land are un¬ 
cultivated, and such cultivation as is car¬ 
ried on is very crude. Albania possesses 
deposits of coal, copper, gold, lead and 
silver, but little mining is done. The prin- 























ALBANY—ALBANY CONGRESS 


cipal agricultural products are tobacco, 
olive oil and wool. The latter is woven 
into coarse, heavy cloth by the natives. 
Albania is for the most part rugged, wild 
and mountainous. There are no roads in 
the interior, and railroads are still un¬ 
known. Her seaports number five—San 
Giovanni de Medua, Durazzo, Valona, 
Porto Palermo and Santi Quaranta. 

The Albanians are a quick-witted, orig¬ 
inal and aesthetic people, ruled by a strict 
code of honor and seeming to have no need 
of a universal system of justice. Almost 
two-thirds of these people are Moslems; 
of the remaining one-third, those in the 
north are Roman Catholics, and those in 
the south Greek Catholics. 

But little is known of the early history 
of the Albanians. They were under Turk¬ 
ish rule from 1431 until 1912, with the 
exception of brief periods in the fifteenth 
and in the eighteenth centuries. The Al¬ 
banian League, formed in 1880 with a 
view to gaining independence, was short 
lived. In 1912, however, Albanian inde¬ 
pendence was declared, and the London 
Ambassadorial Conference agreed to Al¬ 
banian autonomy. That conference worked 
out approximate boundaries for the new 
country, and agreed that it should have a 
European ruler. Prince William of Wied 
was chosen, and arrived at Durazzo in 
March, 1914. But after the outbreak of 
the World War, Prince William left Al¬ 
bania and disorder followed. The Austri¬ 
ans overran the country in 1916. In 1917, 
Italy proclaimed Albania an independent 
country. There is now a Diet of 77 mem¬ 
bers ; and at the head of the State is a 
Council of Regents, composed of a rep¬ 
resentative of each of the religious bodies 
of the country. Albania was admitted to 
the League of Nations in December, 1920. 

Albany, the capital of the State of 
New York, and the county-seat of Albany 
County, is situated on the west bank of 
the Hudson River, and on the Boston & 
Albany (terminus), the New York Cen¬ 
tral & Hudson River, the West Shore, the 
Boston & Maine, the Delaware & Hudson 
railroads, and the Erie and Champlain 
Canals. It is 200 miles west of Boston, 
145 miles north of New York City, and 


297 miles east of Buffalo. The city has 
numerous street railways and interurban 
connections with neighboring cities. 

Albany prides itself upon its facilities 
for education. It is possible for a child 
here to spend 17 years in study, including 
a four years’ course at the State college, 
at a cost to the city of $1,258.79 and 
$1,000 to the state, a total gift of 

$2,258.79. There is also ample oppor¬ 
tunity for parochial training. The pub¬ 
lic schools have special classes for de¬ 

fective children, and for vocational train¬ 
ing—in a word, the schools of Albany 
are remarkable for their wide scope. At 
the State College one may graduate in 
pedagogy, law, medicine or pharmacy, 
nursing, library work, etc. The Albany 
Library School is the most important 
school for library training in the United 
States, and its graduates are eagerly 

sought in the large libraries of the 

country. 

Some of the school buildings here are 
magnificent, as, for instance, the State 
Education Building, in architecture like a 
Greek temple, completed in 1913 at a cost 
of $5,500,000, and the new Albany High 
School, erected at a cost of $1,000,000. 

There are many other fine structures in 
the city, among them the State Capitol, 
the City Hall, the Federal Building, the 
Albany Institute, and the State College 
for Teachers. Notable churches are All 
Saints’ Cathedral, St. Peter’s Episcopal 
Church, Cathedral of the Immaculate 
Conception, and the Temple Beth Emeth. 
There is an extensive boulevard system, 
a well planned park system, and the 
streets are well paved. 

Albany’s chief industries are car re¬ 
pairing, printing and publishing; foun¬ 
dries and machine shops; bakeries; the 
manufacture of shirts, collars and cuffs; 
men’s clothing, tobacco, leather, brass, etc. 
According to the United States census for 
1920 there were 382 industrial establish¬ 
ments, with a capital of $39,529,000, and 
products valued at $45,455,000. Popu¬ 
lation, 113,344. 

Albany Congress, a conference called 
to meet in Albany in 1754. The first shot 
of the French and Indian War had been 


ALBANY REGENCY—ALBEMARLE SOUND 


fired near Great Meadows. The British 
authorities desired to unite the colonies in 
a policy of defense. Delegates were pres¬ 
ent from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New 
York, and the four New England colonies. 
After a treaty with the Iroquois had been 
completed, Benjamin Franklin, the pos¬ 
sessor of the most constructive mind in the 
colonies, presented a plan for a colonial 
union. In some respects his proposal fore¬ 
shadowed our present federal constitution. 
Provision was made for a grand council, 
composed of members sent by the re¬ 
spective colonies in proportion to popula¬ 
tion. This council was to have control of 
frontier settlements, Indian affairs, and 
taxes for common purposes. The dele¬ 
gates at Albany approved the idea and 
submitted the plan to the colonies and to 
the British Lords of Trade, but the no¬ 
tion was rejected all around. Franklin 
wrote: “Its fate was singular; the as¬ 
semblies did not adopt it as they all 
thought there was too much prerogative in 
it, and in England it was judged to have 
too much of the democratic.” 

Franklin’s “short hints” towards a 
scheme for uniting the northern colonies, 
are as follows: 

A GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 

To be appointed by the King. 

To be a military man. 

To have a salary from the crown. 

To have a negation on all acts of the Grand 
Council, and carry into execution whatever is 
agreed on by him and that Council. 

GRAND COUNCIL. 

One member to be chosen by the Assembly 
of each of the smaller colonies, and two or more 
by each of the larger, in proportion to the sums 
they pay yearly into the general treasury. 

Albany Regency. See Van Buren, 
Martin. 

Albatross, aFba-tros, an aquatic bird 
of the southern seas, allied to the petrel 
and the gull. There are several species. 
The wandering albatross, with a wing ex¬ 
panse of twelve feet, is the largest web¬ 
footed bird known. The hind toe is want¬ 
ing. The foot is webbed to the very ex¬ 
tremity. Occasionally, at least, this bird 
visits Tampa Bay, Florida. I he albatross 
feeds on fish, but is far from nice in its 
choice of a meal. When food is plentiful, 
it gorges till it can hardly move. Any sea 


carrion, as the floating carcass of a whale, 
is acceptable. Flying fish are a favorite 
food. Except when rising from the wa¬ 
ter, the albatross floats so gracefully in 
the air that the motion of its wings is 
hardly perceptible. Its cry is said to be 
like that of a pelican, but it also brays 
like a donkey. Its flesh is not edible, al¬ 
though the eggs are eaten. The nest is 
formed by making a slight hollow in the 
,sand not far from the sea. Only one egg, 
about four inches long, is laid. The al¬ 
batross is a picturesque feature of the 
lonely Antarctic waters, where it follows 
the whaler’s ship in hope of food. This 
trait is utilized by Coleridge in his The 
Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The black¬ 
footed albatross, a smaller bird, haunts the 
North Pacific. Flocks of fifteen or twenty 
follow the tourists’ ship from San Fran¬ 
cisco to the Aleutian Islands. 

Albemarle Sound, a body of shallow 
water on the coast of North Carolina. 
It is separated from the Atlantic by sand¬ 
bars, grown into low islands. The sound 
extends about sixty miles in an east and 
west direction. It is traversed by the 
thirty-sixth parallel of north latitude. 
The sound is not over eighteen feet deep, 
and does not afford draft for large ships. 
The discharge of numerous rivers, includ¬ 
ing the Chowan and the Roanoke, keeps 
the waters fresh. Tides and oceanic tem¬ 
pests are not felt within the shelter of the 
bars. 

Albert I (1875 —), the king of Bel¬ 
gium. He was born in Brussels, and was 
carefully educated. He devoted much 
time to the special study of economics and 
social science, and traveled extensively on 
the continent, in the Belgian Congo, and 
in the United States. In the latter coun¬ 
try he made a study of railroads under 
the supervision of James J. Hill. He mar¬ 
ried Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria in 1900. 
King Albert is a second cousin of King 
George V of Great Britain and of Em¬ 
peror William II of Germany. He is the 
son of Philip, Count of Flanders, the 
younger brother of King Leopold II. 
Leopold II, King Albert’s predecessor, left 
no sons, and as his daughters were ex¬ 
cluded from the throne by the Salic Law, 


ALBERT—ALBERTA 


Albert succeeded to the throne on the death* 
of King Leopold in 1909. When the Ger¬ 
mans invaded Belgium in 1914, King Al¬ 
bert, despite the pleas of his loving sub¬ 
jects, placed himself at the head of his 
army. He suffered the dangers and hard¬ 
ships of active leadership uncomplainingly. 

Albert is one of the most respected sov¬ 
ereigns in the world. Until the German 
invasion, his country was peaceful and 
prosperous, and yet he was constantly 
working for the improvement of his sub¬ 
jects, whom he loves. He is at once schol¬ 
arly and active; he has striven for direct¬ 
ness and honesty in his dealings with other 
European rulers; and in his private life 
has set a standard that anyone might well 
follow. It is because of his vigor and his 
unbounded concern for them that the Bel¬ 
gian people idolize their king. 

Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg Gotha 
(1819-1861), married Queen Victoria and 
was called the Prince Consort. He was 
an enthusiastic supporter of science and 
art, giving both time and money in aid 
of learned associations. He died Decem¬ 
ber 14, 1861. His name has been per¬ 
petuated generously. The Albert Em¬ 
bankment in the heart of London is an 
artificial stone wall along the Thames. 
It is three-fourths of a mile long, backed 
with earth, is sixty feet wide, and cost 
$5,000,000. The Albert Memorial at the 
south entrance of Kensington Gardens is 
a magnificent Gothic canopy on a spacious 
granite platform, ascended by steps on all 
four sides. Four marble groups at the 
four corners represent agriculture, com¬ 
merce, manufacture, and engineering. In 
the center sits a colossal bronze-gilt figure 
of the Prince, wearing the robes of the Or¬ 
der of the Garter. The canopy bears in 
blue mosaic letters on a gold ground the 
inscription, “Queen Victoria and her 
People to the Memory of Albert, Prince 
Consort, as a tribute of their gratitude 
for a life devoted to the public good.” 
Albert Hall, erected in London in 1871, 
is capable of seating 8,000 people. It 
contains one of the largest organs in ex¬ 
istence. Lake Albert Nyanza, in Africa, 
was named for the Prince. See Victoria, 


Alber'ta, a province of Canada. It lies 
between Saskatchewan and British Colum¬ 
bia. The province extends from the 49th 
to the 60th parallel of north latitude, 
and from the 110th to the 120th meridian. 

The southern boundary and the northern 
boundary, followed eastward, pass near 
Paris and St. Petersburg respectively. 
Were it not that the southwestern corner 
is cut off by the Rocky Mountains, and 
thrown into British Columbia, the bound¬ 
aries would be mathematical. Owing to 
the convergence of meridians, the width 
diminishes with regularity to the north¬ 
ward. The total area of land and water 
is 255,285 square miles, greater than that 
of North Dakota and Montana combined. 

Surface. The southwest boundary line 
follows the main divide of the Rocky 
Mountains, thus giving the province that 
region of gorgeous scenic beauty, Rocky 
Mountain Park. This area, for which 
Banff is the gateway, has stupendous 
mountains, glaciers and icy streams, fish¬ 
laden lakes, hot springs, and other attrac¬ 
tions. The greater part of the province, 
however, is a vast rolling prairie. The prov¬ 
ince is drained chiefly by the headwaters 
of the Mackenzie and the Saskatchewan 
rivers. The area tributary to Hudson 
Bay is less than that within the basin 
of the Mackenzie. The valley of the Milk 
River is tributary to the Missouri. The 
western side of the district is mountainous, 
containing, however, many valleys which 
broaden out into a prairie region in 
the east. The foothills, lakes, and streams 
are well wooded. The prairies are cov¬ 
ered with wild flowers and characteristic 
grasses. 

Climate. The climate of southern Al¬ 
berta is modified by the Chinook winds. 
It is moderate in comparison with the 
more central parts of the Great Plain. Be¬ 
sides the direct influence of the strong 
Chinook in the south the climate of the 
whole province is considerably moderated 
by the influence of the warm westerlies from 
the coast. This makes possible the settle¬ 
ment of the country northward as may 
be seen by the growth of towns and cities. 


ALBERTA 


Precipitation is not heavy over the prov¬ 
ince. The annual precipitation in no 
place goes much above twenty inches and 
is considerably below this in the southern 
part of the province. The snow does not 
lie throughout the winter in southern 
Alberta but it does in the middle and 
north. While the precipitation is not heavy, 
about sixty per cent of the moisture falls 
in May, June and early July, and the 
growth is very rapid. The autumn season 
is dry and threshing is done outside. 

The climate on the whole is attractive. 
The winters are relieved by moderate 
changes and the summers are cool at night. 
The air is a quickly evaporating air; its 
clearness and the great proportion of sunny 
weather are conducive to the enjoyment of 
outdoor life both in work and play; the 
days in summer are long. There is in 
midsummer a daily darkness of only five 
hours (10 P. M. till 3 A. M.), thus giv¬ 
ing a prolonged day for growing. The 
great amount of dry, clear weather has 
led the settlers to adopt the term “Sunny 
Alberta.” 

Soil. Expressed in acres the total area 
of Alberta is 158,878,660. Of this 1,510,- 
400 is the area covered by lakes and rivers 
leaving 157,368,260 acres of land. The 
mountains, foothills and waste land, some 
of which is subject to reclamation, reduce 
the immediately arable land to 81,300,000 
acres, or about one-half of the total area. 
It is readily seen that Alberta is an agri¬ 
cultural province. It is especially famous 
for its production of wheat. 

The soil of the province is excellent. It 
varies between a finely pulverized, quick, 
friable brown loam in the south to darker 
loams and black lands in the centre and 
north. The subsoil is generally clay. In 
the south there is considerable open prairie. 
With progress north scrub increases and 
bluffs of poplar and willow alternate with 
open stretches. On the open prairie the 
farms are large and a good deal of the 
work on the land is done by steam and 
gasoline power. Tractors are used for 
breaking the scrub area of other parts, 
with incredible speed. 

Live Stock. The central and northern 
parts of the province are devoted to mixed 


farming with special undertakings in pure¬ 
bred stock raising and in special dairying. 
The annual output of dairy products is now 
about $40,000,000, of which dairy butter 
comprises about twenty per cent. Most of 
the creameries are co-operatively owned, 
and Edmonton claims the largest creamery 
in the Dominion. The following figures 
are accurate yearly averages for the num¬ 
bers of live stock: Milch cows, 400,000; 
other cattle, 1,500,900; horses, 1,000,000; 
sheep, 400,000; swine, 600,000. 

Minerals. It has been estimated that 
Alberta has 75 per cent of the coal wealth 
of Canada, and 14 per cent of the coal re¬ 
serves of the world. The yearly output is 
now about 12,000,000 tons of bituminous, 
3,000,000 tons of lignite, and 100,000 tons 
of anthracite, most of the last from one 
mine. The known areas of coal lands are 
roughly 30,000 square miles, with a total 
deposit of 1,000 billion tons. At the pres¬ 
ent rate of production it would take 
70,000 years to exhaust the supply. Natural 

Irrigation. Southern Alberta was a 
ranch country up to 1900. Then both 
irrigation and dry farm settlers began to 
come into the open prairie, and the growing 
of alfalfa, roots and grain became rather 
general. The yields of grain are some¬ 
times enormous. Alberta is believed to hold 
the world’s record for the production of 
wheat—over fifty-four bushels per acre on 
one thousand acres—and yields on smaller 
areas have gone beyond seventy bushels an 
acre. A ten-year average, however, is 
nearer twenty-five bushels an acre, the 
limiting factor, especially in southern 
Alberta, being an occasional dry year. The 
irrigated areas produce heavy crops. 

Manufactures. Manufacturing has 
just begun in the province. Flour, oat¬ 
meal, cement and linseed oil mills, pork and 
beef packing houses, factories with out¬ 
puts of products in clay, brass and iron, 
glass and wood, have been established, and 
are being rapidly increased. 

History. Alberta was originally part 
of Prince Rupert’s Land, the domain of 
the Hudson’s Bay Company. The earliest 
traders reached it by dog train and canoes, 
but later the Red River cart, the steam- 


I 


ALBERT NYANZA 


boat, and prairie schooner carried in the 
baggage and families of hundreds of set¬ 
tlers. The arrival of the Canadian Pacific 
Railway in 1883 was followed by an edu¬ 
cational campaign which inspired a tre¬ 
mendous flood of immigration from Great 
Britain, United States and Eastern Canada. 
The population increased from 73,000 in 
1901 to 185,000 in 1906; 374,655 in 1911 ; 
and 581,995 in 1921. Calgary, Edmonton 
(the capital), Lethbridge and Medicine 
Hat are the chief cities in order of size. 

The name Alberta was given to a part 
of the Northwest Territories in 1882, in 
honor of the visit of the Princess Louise 
Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria and 
wife of the Marquis of Lome, then gov¬ 
ernor general of the Dominion. The prov¬ 
ince, with its present boundaries, was 
created by act of the Dominion Parliament 
in 1905. Like the other provinces, it is 
duly represented in Parliament, and its 
provincial affairs are managed by a lieuten¬ 
ant governor, appointed by the governor 
general of the dominion. The provincial 
assembly has fifty-six members. 

The first premier, Alexander C. Ruther¬ 
ford, held office from September, 1905, to 
1910, when he was followed by Arthur L. 
Sifton, formerly chief justice of the prov¬ 
ince. During these first two ministries the 
chief problems concerned the construction 
of railways and the amount of aid to be 
given private enterprise by the province. 
In 1913 and 1914 occurred the great oil 
boom in the Calgary district, and in 1915 
the people voted in favor of prohibition. 
Since 1916 women have had the same po¬ 
litical rights as men. 

Education. At the head of the public 
school system stands the University of 
Alberta, established in 1908. Affiliated with 
it are a number of denominational schools. 
The province is divided into over 3,000 
school districts, each of which elects its local 
board, which functions under the general 
direction of the provincial department of 
education. There are some forty schools 
in Alberta with grades numbered from 1 
to 12; the first eight grades are the pri¬ 
mary school and the other four are the 
high school, and a regular examination 
must be passed to gain entrance to the 


higher grades. There has been a marked 
tendency to supplement the usual curric¬ 
ulum by vocational or technical study, 
especially in agriculture. 

The University of Alberta, situated at 
Edmonton, Alta., is administered by a 
board of governors, whose functions are 
those of business management. A senate 
is entrusted with the supervision of the 
educational work. At the beginning of 
the University, instruction was provided 
only in the arts and sciences. A law 
faculty was added in 1912, and faculties 
of applied science and of medicine in 
1913, and one of agriculture in 1915. 
Recently faculties of pharmacy, household 
economics, commerce and theology have 
been added, developing the institution into 
a University of broad scope. The Univer¬ 
sity was organized in 1907, and in the 
year 1921-22 had a registration of 1,285 
students. 

Statistics. These are the latest avail¬ 


able : 

Population . 581,995 

Calgary . 65,305 

Edmonton . 58,821 

Lethbridge . 11,097 

Medicine Hat. 9,634 

Members of Canadian Senate. 6 

Members in House of Commons. 12 

Representatives in Provincial Assembly 56 

Grain crops (latest available five- 
year averages) : 

Wheat, bushels . 35,000,000 

Oats, bushels . 72,000,000 

Barley, bushels . 8,600,000 

Potatoes, bushels . 8,000,000 

Hay, tons . 250,000 

Dairy products. $40,000,000 

Timber lands, acres. 5,400,000 

Forest reserves and parks, acres.. 4,357,000 

Mineral production. $20,000,000 

Railway mileage. 5,000 

Children in public schools. 152,000 

Students in University. 1,285 


Albert Nyanza, nl-an'za, one of the 
great lakes of Central Africa. It lies in 
the great rift between Uganda and the 
Congo State. Its surface is 2,720 feet 
above the level of the sea. The lake dis¬ 
charges its waters northward through the 
White Nile. It is ninety-seven miles in 
length, and is about one-fourth as wide. 
It is about one-fifteenth as large as the 
Victoria Nyanza. The shores are pictur¬ 
esque, mountains and cliffs rising from 




















ALBERTUS—ALBINOS 


1,500 to 7,000 feet above the surface of 
the lake. Nyanza is a Bantu word mean¬ 
ing great water. The lake was first visited 
by Sir Samuel Baker in 1864. It was 
named for Albert, consort of Queen Vic¬ 
toria. See Nyanza; Uganda. 

Albert Edward Nyanza, a lake in 
Central Africa, which covers an area of 
820 square miles, on the boundary between 
Belgian Congo and Uganda. Henry M. 
Stanley discovered it in 1876 and gave it 
the name of Albert Edward after the then 
Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. 
A part of the Semliki River empties into 
Albert Edward Nyanza, through a valley 
in the Ruwenzori Mountains, which were 
explored by the Duke of Abruzzi in 1906. 
The region is remarkable for the number 
of lakes which have been formed in extinct 
craters and also for the numerous geysers. 
Fish is abundant, and crocodiles, hippo¬ 
potami and other animals are found in the 
vicinity of this lake, especially in the 
swampy regions. The meaning of the 
name Nyanza is great water, and is fre¬ 
quently applied in Africa. 

Albertus Magnus (1193-1280). This 
German philosopher and Dominican friar 
stands out conspicuously during a time not 
noted for its many men of learning. He 
was the chief expounder of the ideas of 
Aristotle in his time, as well as a prolific 
writer on scientific subjects. He has been 
styled “Doctor Universalis,” and because of 
his wide chemical knowledge was accused 
of practicing the black art. The myth of 
his transforming a wintry scene on the 
occasion of a banquet to the king, into 
one of balmy summer beauty, may be ex¬ 
plained by the fact that Albertus had a 
greenhouse. The last decade of his life was 
devoted mainly to the consideration of 
religious questions. There is considerable 
doubt as to the authorship of some of the 
works commonly reputed to be his. 

Albigenses, al-bi-jen'sez, a religious 
sect of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 
They opposed the teachings of the Church 
of Rome. Their principal center was 
Toulouse, in the south of France. Like 
all heretical sects they were considered 
seditious. An armed crusade against them 
was ordered by Pope Innocent III. Polit¬ 


ical hatred and desire for plunder on the 
part of the nobles of northern France, were 
cloaked in the guise of religious zeal. “Slay 
all, God will know his own,” was the war 
cry. They were suppressed by battle, conver¬ 
sion, inquisition, torture, and massacre. 
Forty thousand innocent and, in a way, 
inoffensive people, many of them Catho¬ 
lics, were killed in cold blood in a single 
campaign. The destruction of the sect 
does not appear to be other than one of 
those great catastrophes that happen with¬ 
out need and without any counterbalanc¬ 
ing advantage to the world. 

The Albigenses were the most formidable of 
several heretical sects produced in the twelfth 
century by a general social and religious dis¬ 
content. All these movements seem to have 
drawn strength chiefly from popular. feeling 
against the wealth and corruption of the higher 
clergy; and most of them quickly subsided when 
the church roused and reformed itself. But the 
Albigenses rejected important doctrines of the 
church, and soon came to rebel against its 
government. They had their home in Langue¬ 
doc, or southeastern France, and in that region 
the dislike for the clergy became so intense that 
the old byword, “I had rather be a Jew,” was 
exchanged for “I had rather be a priest.” Popes 
and church councils made various ineffectual 
attempts to reclaim the heretics, and finally 
Innocent III proclaimed a holy war against them 
as “more wicked than Saracens.” For a hun¬ 
dred years, popes had been preaching a war 
of the cross against the Mohammedans in Pal¬ 
estine : now a crusade was preached against a 
sect of Christian heretics. Raymond, the mighty 
Count of Toulouse, tried to protect his subjects; 
but the feudal nobles of northern France rallied 
to the Pope’s call. Besides the religious motive, 
these lords hated the rising democracy of south¬ 
ern city-France, and hungered for its rich plun¬ 
der. A twenty-years’ struggle, marked by fero¬ 
cious massacres, exterminated the heretics and the 
rising prosperity of Languedoc.—West, Modern 
History,. 

Albinos, al-bl'nos, persons or animals 
whose skin and hair are lacking in color¬ 
ing matter. The hair of an albino is much 
whiter than so-called light or flaxen hair. 
Differences in complexion, at least differ¬ 
ences in hue, are due to the different col¬ 
ors of a pigment which nature stores be¬ 
tween the transparent cuticle and the 
true skin. Albinos lack this coloring pig¬ 
ment. In other respects they are like oth¬ 
er people. Albinos are found among all 
races. A negro albino is, of course, more 
noticeable, as a colorless, white haired ne- 


ALBUMINS—ALCESTIS 


gro must be. Owing to this want of pig¬ 
ment the blood vessels of an albino’s eye 
are visible all the time, and give it a fiery, 
bloodshot appearance. An albino is sen¬ 
sitive to strong light, but can see better at 
night than other people. Lack of color¬ 
ing matter, or albinism, has been observed 
in domestic animals and in birds. Dogs, 
cats, horses, sheep, hares, rabbits, rats, 
and mice afford examples of albinos. The 
famous white elephants of Siam are albi¬ 
nos. The white zebu of India, the sacred 
bull led in religious festivals, is simply 
an albino. An albino trout is one of the 
curiosities of the fish kingdom. 

Albumins, al-bu'mms, a class of ni¬ 
trogenous substances occurring naturally 
in animals and plants. The white of an 
egg is a nearly pure, concentrated solution 
of albumin (egg-albumin) in water. Al¬ 
bumins constitute an important ingredient 
of the blood of animals, and also of milk. 
Wheat, oats, rye, and nearly all vegetables 
yield some albumin. In many vegetables 
the albumin is lost when the material is 
soaked in cold water for some length of 
time. Animal and vegetable albumins do 
not differ much from one another in com¬ 
position, and are composed of carbon, ox¬ 
ygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulphur. 
Albumins are soluble in water and coagu¬ 
lated by heat. When added to certain 
liquors, they have the property of combin¬ 
ing with some of the suspended solid mat¬ 
ters and carrying them to the bottom. 
On account of this property, white of an 
egg is used frequently to clear coffee. 

Blood albumin was at one time exten¬ 
sively used in sugar refineries to clear su¬ 
gar. In cases of poisoning, especially 
from corrosive sublimate, the white of an 
egg is sometimes a successful remedy, 
since in coagulating it combines with the 
poisonous substance and serves to prevent 
its action on the stomach. Albumins con¬ 
stitute an important ingredient in animal 
and human food. An animal can exist for 
a considerable time without fats and car¬ 
bohydrates, but its death is assured by the 
withdrawal of albumins from its nourish¬ 
ment. Commercial albumin is obtained 
chiefly from two sources, eggs and the se¬ 
rum of blood. In the arts it is used to 


size paper or give it a lustrous coating, 
and to secure fast colors in connection 
with dyeing and printing. It is also used 
in photography and pharmacy, and in the 
manufacture of confectionery. Slaked 
lime forms with albumin solution a useful 
cement. 

The term “albumen,” was originally a 
name applied by scientists to the white 
of an egg. It is derived from a Latin 
word albus, signifying white. In botany 
the word has been extended to apply to 
that portion of a seed technically known 
as the endosperm, although the seed may 
or may not be rich in albumins. Seed 
albumen is best illustrated in the hemi¬ 
spherical halves of beans, peas, coffee, and 
peanuts—the nourishment stored up in the 
seed. It also constitutes the floury part 
in corn, wheat, and like grains, the oily 
part in poppy seeds, and the fleshy part 
in the cocoanut. 

Albuquerque, al-boo-kar'ka, the metrop¬ 
olis of New Mexico, the county-seat of Ber¬ 
nalillo County, situated on the Rio Grande 
River about sixty miles southwest of Santa 
Fe. Old Albuquerque was founded by the 
Spaniards in 1706 and named in honor of 
the viceroy of New Mexico. The new part 
of the town, Albuquerque proper, may be 
said to date from 1880. The Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe and the Atlantic & 
Pacific railroads pass through the city, 
which is 4,850 feet above sea level, in a 
region rich in gold, silver, iron, and coal. 
The industries include railroad and ma¬ 
chine shops, a mammoth lumber mill, brick, 
lumber, sash, doors, boxes, and extensive 
trade in wool and hides. The Univer¬ 
sity of New Mexico, unique in that the 
buildings are in the Pueblo style of archi¬ 
tecture, is situated here, also a govern¬ 
ment school for Indians and several acade¬ 
mies. The city is noted for its equable 
climate and almost perpetual sunshine, 
making it a popular health resort, particu¬ 
larly for pulmonary complaints. Four 
large sanitariums are located here. Albu¬ 
querque has grown rapidly. In 1900 its 
population was 6,238, while by the census 
of 1920 it is 15,157. See New Mexico. 

Alcestis, al-ses'tis, in Greek legend, 
the wife of Admetus, king of Thessaly. 


ALCHEMY 


Admetus was mortally ill, but, at the re¬ 
quest of Apollo, the Fates agreed to spare 
his life if some one would die in his stead. 
Admetus was overjoyed, as he had many 
friends. He found none willing to die, 
however, until Alcestis offered to make 
the sacrifice. She was at t point of 
death, when her life was save by the in¬ 
tervention of Hercules. Alee s furnishes 
the subject and title for one of the plays 
of Euripides, a melodrama, rather than 
a tragedy. Browning gives the full story 
of this play in Balaustion’s Adventure, 
where he speaks of it as 

That strangest, saddest, sweetest song of his, 
Alcestis. 


Other quotations are: 


What kind of creature should the woman prove 
That has surpassed Alcestis? 


When King Admetus went his rounds, poor soul. 
A-begging somebody to be so brave 
As die for one afraid to die himself— 

Thou, friend? Thou, love? Father or mother, 
then ! 

None of you? What, Alcestis must Death catch? 
O best of wives, one woman in the world! 

See Euripides. 

Alchemy, in the history of science, a 
term applied to medieval chemistry. 
Quoting from the Century Dictionary, 
“The doctrines and processes of the early 
and medieval chemists; in particular, the 
supposed process, or the search for the 
process, by which it was hoped to trans¬ 
mute the baser metals into gold.” From 
Encyclopedia Britannic a, we add, “Al¬ 
chemy was, we may say, the sickly but 
imaginative infancy through which modern 
chemistry had to pass before it attained 
its majority, or, in other words, became 
a positive science.” The derivation of 
the word indicates that alchemy was origi¬ 
nally the art of extracting juices from 
plants for medicinal purposes. In the dawn 
of science there was little distinction be¬ 


tween the different branches now recog¬ 
nized ; but alchemy may be said to beai the 
relation to modern chemistry that astrology 
sustains to astronomy, and magic to medi¬ 
cine. The medieval students of alchemy 
are not to be regarded with scorn. They 
were working in the dark. "W ithout them 
modern science would have been impos¬ 
sible. This view is maintained ably by 
Hoefer in his History of Chemistry: 


Let us forget for an instant the advances 
which this science has made since the 5th cen¬ 
tury. Let us fancy ourselves for a moment 
transported to the laboratory of one of the 
great masters of the sacred art, and watch as 
neophytes some of his operations. 

First Experiment. —Some common water is 
heated in an open vessel. The water boils and 
changes to an aeriform body (steam), leaving 
at the bottom of the vessel a white earth in the 
form of powder. Conclusion—water changes 
into air and earth. What objection could we 
make to this inference, if we were wholly ig¬ 
norant of the substances which the water holds in 
solution and which are, after evaporation, de¬ 
posited at the bottom of the vessel? 

Second Experiment. —A piece of red-hot iron 
is put under a bell which rests in a basin full 
of water. The water diminishes in volume, and 
a candle being introduced into the bell sets fire 
at once to the gas inside. Conclusion—water 
changes into fire. Is not this the natural con¬ 
clusion which would present itself to any one 
who was ignorant that water is a composite 
body, consisting of two gases, one of which, 
oxygen, is absorbed by the iron, while the other, 
hydrogen, is ignited by contact with the flame? 

Third Experiment. —A piece of lead, or any 
other metal except gold or silver, is burned 
(calcined) in contact with the air. It imme¬ 
diately loses its primitive properties, and is 
transformed into a powder or species of ashes 
or lime. The ashes, which are the product of 
the death of the metal, are again taken and 
heated in a crucible together with some grains 
of wheat, and the metal is seen rising from its 
ashes and reassuming its original form and prop¬ 
erties. Conclusion—metals are destroyed by fire 
and revivified by wheat and heat. No objection 
could be raised against this inference, for the 
reduction of oxides by means of carbon, such 
as wheat, was as little known as the phenome¬ 
non of the oxidation of metals. It was from 
this power of resuscitating and reviving dead, 
i.e., calcined metals, that grains of wheat were 
made the symbol of the resurrection and life 
etern&L 

Fourth Experiment. —Argentiferous lead is 
burned in cupels composed of ashes or pulver¬ 
ized bones, the lead disappears, and at the end 
of the operation there remains in the cupel a 
nugget of pure silver. Nothing was more natu¬ 
ral than to conclude that the lead was trans¬ 
formed into silver; and to build on this and 
analogous facts, the theory of the transmutation 
of metals, a theory which, later on, led to the 
search for the philosopher’s stone. 

Fifth Experiment. —A strong acid is poured on 
copper, the metal is acted upon, and in process 
of time disappears, or rather is transformed into 
a green transparent liquid. Then a thin plate 
of iron is plunged into this liquid, and the cop¬ 
per is seen to reappear in its ordinary aspect, 
while the iron in its turn is dissolved. What more 
natural than to conclude that iron is transformed 


ALCIBIADES—ALCMAEON 


into copper? If instead of the solution of cop¬ 
per, a solution of lead, silver, or gold had been 
employed they would have held that iron was 
transformed into lead, silver, or gold. 

Sixth Experiment .—Mercury is poured in a 
gentle shower on melted sulphur, and a substance 
is produced as black as a raven’s wing. This 
substance, when warmed in a closed vessel, is 
volatilized without changing, and assumes a bril¬ 
liant red color. Must not this curious phenome¬ 
non, which even science in the present day is 
unable to explain, have struck with amazement 
the worshippers of the sacred art, the more 
as in their eyes black and red were nothing less 
than the symbols of light and darkness, the 
good and evil principles, and that the union 
of these two principles represented in the moral 
order of things their God-universe? 

Seventh and last Experiment .—Organic sub¬ 
stances are heated in a still, and from the liq¬ 
uids which are removed by distillation and the 
essences which escape, there remains a solid 
residuum. Was it not likely that results such as 
these would go far to establish the theory which 
made earth, air, fir’, and water the four ele¬ 
ments of the world? 

See Chemistry; Elixir; Philoso¬ 
pher’s Stone. 

Alcibiades, al-si-bl'a-dez (450-404 B. 
C.), a brilliant but unprincipled Atheni¬ 
an. He was a nephew of Pericles and a 
pupil of Socrates. Socrates saved his life 
in battle. A few years later Alcibiades 
rendered the philosopher a similar service, 
thus cementing a friendship, which, how¬ 
ever, appears to have had little influence 
on the character of the younger man. Al¬ 
cibiades was wealthy and profligate, but 
he was popular. He posed as a radical. 
He is charged with inciting strife between 
the Greek cities. For personal ends he 
stirred up his native city against Sparta, 
and tried to renew the Peloponnesian War. 
He persuaded the Athenians to fit out 
an armament, partly under his command, 
for the capture of Sicily. On the night 
before his departure the statues of the 
god Hermes were thrown down through¬ 
out the city, it is believed by Alcibiades 
and a lot of his riotous companions by way 
of a parting lark. He was recalled on the 
charge of impiety to plead for his life, 
but fled instead to Sparta, where he adopt¬ 
ed a plain mode of living, and ingratiated 
himself, as he had done at Athens, by pre¬ 
tending to be what he was not. From 
Sparta Alcibiades fled to Persia. From 


Persia he was recalled to Athens and re¬ 
stored to favor. Again he fled to Asia 
with his wealth, and finally was assassi¬ 
nated by a flight of arrows as he attempt¬ 
ed to escape from his burning home. 

There is little in the life of Alcibiades 

% 

worthy of study, except as it illustrates 
the factional spirit in Greece, and the 
facility with which an unprincipled man 
effects a change of base. His career was 
one of intrigue and wasted opportunity. 
A glimpse of his character may be gleaned 
from an incident related by Plutarch. Al¬ 
cibiades paid 7,000 drachmas, the value 
of 100 oxen, for a very handsome dog, and 
then cut off his tail in order that the 
Athenians might have something fresh to 
talk about and stop gossiping about his 
other misdeeds. 

Alcmaeon, alk-me'on, in Grecian leg¬ 
end, the son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. 
Eriphyle urged Amphiaraus to undertake 
the expedition of the seven against 
Thebes. Amphiaraus took offense and com¬ 
manded his son Alcmaeon to slay the 
mother. As an oracle, whom the son Alc¬ 
maeon consulted, also advised Eriphyle’s 
death, Alcmaeon slew her. As a punish¬ 
ment he was driven mad by the Furies, 
and wandered away from Argos seeking 
purification from his crime. In Arcadia 
Phegeus, the king of Psophis, relieved 
him from the Furies and gave him his 
daughter in marriage. To her Alcmaeon 
gave the necklace and peplus of Harmo- 
nia, which his mother Eriphyle had re¬ 
ceived from Polynices. In consequence of 
his presence the land of Psophis became 
barren. Alcmaeon fled to the mouth of the 
river Achelous for further purification. 
Here he married Callirrhoe, daughter of 
the river god. To gratify her vanity, al¬ 
though against his better judgment, he re¬ 
turned to Arcadia to procure for her the fa¬ 
tal necklace and robe of Harmonia. He 
told Phegeus he wished to dedicate them on 
the altar of the oracle at Delphi. Phege¬ 
us gave Alcmaeon the ornaments, but 
learning for whom they were really in¬ 
tended, he sent his sons to waylay and 
kill Alcmaeon while returning to his wife. 
Alcmaeon was a favorite subject of Greek 


ALCOHOL 


tragedies, but none are now extant. See 
Harmonia; Seven against Thebes; 
Callirrhoe. 

Alcohol, a term popularly applied to 
the substance which imparts to fermented 
and distilled liquors an intoxicating prop¬ 
erty. In modern chemistry the word has 
a much wider meaning, being applied to a 
very numerous class of substances, in many 
members of which the properties charac¬ 
teristic of ordinary alcohol are conspicu¬ 
ous by their absence. Chemically, an al¬ 
cohol may be defined as a neutral com¬ 
pound composed of the three elements, 
carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 

Alcohols are found as natural constitu¬ 
ents of many vegetable and animal prod¬ 
ucts, such as certain oils, fats, and waxes. 
Some alcohols are liquids, while others 
are solids. So-called ethyl alcohol, or 
“spirit of wine,” is formed in the fermen¬ 
tation of solutions of sugar. When yeast 
is added to a solution containing grape 
sugar or glucose, the liquid soon has the 
appearance of boiling. A fundamental 
change takes place in the sugar whereby it 
is broken up into alcohol and carbon di¬ 
oxide. The process is called fermentation. 
Yeast alone cannot ferment cane-sugar. 
The cane-sugar must be first decomposed 
into fermentable sugar, as grape sugar or 
fruit sugar; and this decomposition is ef¬ 
fected by a substance known as invertase, 
which invariably accompanies yeast. The 
ordinary method of obtaining alcohol is 
to form a thin paste of crushed potatoes, 
finely ground grain, or of any vegetable 
material containing starch. The starch is 
first changed into sugar by the action of 
malt, then fermentation is produced by 
the addition of yeast. 

Commercial alcohol is never pure, but 
usually contains from five to ten per cent 
of water. By careful redistillation ths 
amount of water may be reduced to about 
two per cent, and this can be removed by 
adding quicklime, which unites with the 
water. The liquid which is poured off is 
distilled again, thus forming approxi¬ 
mately pure or absolute alcohol. 

Pure alcohol is a mobile, colorless liquid 
with an agreeable ethereal odor. It has 
a strong affinity for water, which it readily 


absorbs from the atmosphere. It mixes 
with water in all proportions with marked 
contraction and rise in temperature. The 
maximum contraction is obtained by mix¬ 
ing 52 volumes of alcohol with 48 volumes 
of water, the volume of the mixture being 
96.3 instead of 100. Pure alcohol boils 
at 173 degrees Fahrenheit under one at¬ 
mosphere pressure, and freezes at 202 de¬ 
grees below zero. It burns with an in¬ 
tensely hot, pale-blue, non-luminous flame. 
It has a specific gravity of 0.7938 at 60 
degrees temperature; in other words, its 
weight is about eight-tenths as much as 
water. The amount of alcohol in a mix¬ 
ture of alcohol and water is determined 
by means of a special form of hydrometer, 
called an “alcholometer,” the scale of 
which gives directly the per cent by weight 
or volume for a given temperature, usu¬ 
ally 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The point 
at which the instrument sinks in pure al¬ 
cohol is marked 100; a similar point for 
pure water is marked 0. When placed in 
a mixture, the instrument sinks to a point 
intermediate between these marks accord¬ 
ing to the relative proportions of water 
and alcohol. 

Investigations have shown that 100 
pounds of the following products of the 
farm will produce industrial alcohol in 
the following quantities: Rice, 6 gallons; 
rye, barley, spelt, corn, and sorghum seed, 
5 gallons; Irish potatoes, \ l / 2 gallons; 
cassava, 2*4 gallons; turnips, 4 to 5 gal¬ 
lons; artichokes, 1*4 gallons; sugar beets, 
2 gallons; sorghum or sugar cane, 1 gal¬ 
lon ; waste molasses, 6 gallons; grapes, 
2 % gallons; bananas, 5 gallons; and 
other fruits from 1 to 1)4 gallons. The 
average range of the alconol content in 
various fermented and distilled liquors 
may be stated as follows: Beers, ale, and 
porter contain from 2 to 6 per cent of al¬ 
cohol ; wines from 8 to 20 per cent; bran¬ 
dy, whisky, and rum from 45 to 55 per 
cent. 

Alcohol is extensively used in the prep¬ 
aration of lacquers, varnishes, dyes, flavor¬ 
ing extracts, and pharmaceutical prepara¬ 
tions. It hardens animal tissues and is 
destructive of most forms of bacteria. 
These facts make it a valuable preserva- 




ALCOHOL 


tive for specimens of natural history. It 
is occasionally of great value in medicine, 
and in certain emergencies, where prompt 
stimulating action is demanded, it is in¬ 
dispensable. On account of its low freez¬ 
ing point, it is used instead of mercury in 
thermometers intended for measuring low 
temperatures. 

Wood alcohol is obtained by the careful 
heating, or so-called “dry distillation,” of 
hardwood—beech, maple, or birch—in 
iron retorts. The aqueous distillate con¬ 
tains the wood alcohol mixed with acetic 
acid and some minor ingredients, and is 
known as pyroligneous acid. Tarry mat¬ 
ter and other substances separate out on 
standing and are then removed. The ace¬ 
tic acid is combined with lime and the 
wood alcohol purified by fractional dis¬ 
tillation and other methods. Wood alco¬ 
hol boils at 150.8 degrees and burns with 
a blue flame. It can be used for many 
of the purposes for which the common ethyl 
alcohol is used, but on account of its poi¬ 
sonous properties it cannot be used in 
foods and beverages. 

Denatured alcohol is ethyl alcohol ren¬ 
dered unfit for drinking by the addition 
of a substance having a disagreeable taste 
or odor. Methyl alcohol and benzine are 
the denaturing agents authorized by the 
United States commissioner of internal 
revenue. Ten parts of wood alcohol and 
one-half part of benzine are added to 100 
parts by volume of ethyl alcohol of not 
less than 90 per cent strength. In Ger¬ 
many, in addition to wood alcohol, a cer¬ 
tain amount of pyridine (bone oil) must 
be added. This gives a denatured alco¬ 
hol of a very offensive odor, but does not 
render it unfit for many commercial uses. 
Other substances have been proposed for 
denaturing, some of which are the follow¬ 
ing: gum shellac, camphor, turpentine, 

acetic acid, aniline blue, castor oil, carbol¬ 
ic acid, caustic soda, and musk. 

Alcohol as Fuel. The possibilities of 
alcohol as a fuel for internal-combustion 
engines have been widely discussed in re¬ 
cent years. The matter is important to 
both the automobile and the agricultural 
interests of the United States and Canada, 


because alcohol is manufactured from va¬ 
rious products of the soil and the use of 
small stationary or portable liquid-fuel en¬ 
gines, as well as automobiles, is very com¬ 
mon among agriculturists. 

The supply of crude oil to be obtained 
in the United States must ultimately di¬ 
minish, and the history of the past indi¬ 
cates that a constant increase in the price 
of kerosene and gasoline may reasonably 
be expected. On the other hand, it is not 
unreasonable to expect that, with improve- 
ments in agriculture and in processes of 
manufacture, the cost of alcohol may fall. 

An official investigation of the merits of 
alcohol for fuel use in New York City, in 
the mechanical engineering laboratories of 
Columbia University, had two main ob¬ 
jects in view: First, to determine whether 
the gasoline and kerosene engines on the 
American market can run on alcohol as 
fuel, and the relative consumptions of dif¬ 
ferent fuels; second, to determine the im¬ 
provements which might be desirable in 
the design of engines manufactured especi¬ 
ally for alcohol. The tests were made with 
farm engines of the four-cycle gasoline 
type and the two-cycle kerosene type; four- 
cylinder gasoline automobile engines, and 
a small gasoline marine engine of the ver- 
ticle two-cycle type. The following gen¬ 
eral conclusions were reached as a result of 
the tests: 

(1) Any gasoline engine of the ordi¬ 
nary types can be run on alcohol fuel with¬ 
out any material change in the construc¬ 
tion of the engine. The only difficulties 
likely to be encountered are in starting 
and in supplying a sufficient quantity of 
fuel, a quantity which must be considera¬ 
bly greater than the quantity of gasoline 
required. 

(2) When an engine is run on alcohol, 
its operation is more quiet than when run 
on gasoline, its maximum power is usually 
materially higher than it is on gasoline, 
and there is no danger of any injurious 
hammering with alcohol such as there is 
with gasoline. 

(3) For automobile air-cooled engines, 
alcohol seems to be especially adapted as 
a fuel, since the temperature of the en¬ 
gine cylinder may rise much higher before 


i 



ALCOTT 


auto-ignition takes place than is possible 
with gasoline fuel; and if auto-ignition of 
the alcohol fuel does occur, no injurious 
hammering can result. * 

(4) The consumption of fuel in pounds 
per brake horse-power, whether the fuel is 
gasoline or alcohol, depends chiefly upon 
the horse-power at which the engine is be¬ 
ing run and upon the setting of the fuel 
supply valve. 

(5) The investigations also showed 
that the fuel consumption was affected by 
the time of ignition, by the speed, and by 
the initial compression of the fuel charge. 
No tests were made to determine the maxi¬ 
mum possible change in fuel consumption 
that could be produced by changing the 
time of ignition, but when near the best 
fuel consumption it was shown to be im¬ 
portant to have an early ignition. So far 
as tested, the alcohol fuel consumption was 
better at low than at high speeds. So far 
as investigated, increasing the initial com¬ 
pression from 70 to 125 pounds produced 
only a very slight improvement in the con¬ 
sumption of alcohol. 

(6) It is probable that for any given 
engine the fuel consumption is also affected 
by the quantity and temperature of cool¬ 
ing water used and the nature of the 
cooling system, by the type of ignition ap¬ 
paratus, by the quantity and quality of 
lubricating oil, by the temperature and hu¬ 
midity of the atmosphere, and by the 
initial temperature of the fuel. 

(7) With any good small stationary 
gasoline engine as small a fuel consump¬ 
tion as 0.70 pound of gasoline or 1.16 
pounds of alcohol per brake horse-power 
hour may reasonably be expected under 
favorable conditions. These values corre¬ 
spond to 0.118 and 0.170 gallon respect¬ 
ively, or 0.95 pint of gasoline and 1.36 
pints of alcohol. 

In the automobile engines tested with 
alcohol fuel, but a small proportion of the 
liquid was vaporized in the carburetor. 

Alcott, Amos Bronson (1799-1888), 
an American philosophical writer and edu¬ 
cator. The son of a farmer, he worked, 
as a boy, for a country storekeeper; made 
an unsuccessful attempt to peddle mer¬ 
chandise, and in 1823 opened an infant 


school. Acquiring some local fame by his 
methods of teaching, he removed to Bos¬ 
ton and for some years conducted there a 
school of the same sort. His method was 
that of teaching by conversation, his theo¬ 
ry being that the child’s mind should be 
developed independently according to in¬ 
dividual faculties, not molded by impos¬ 
ing upon it knowledge from the outside. 
His system met with disfavor and he re¬ 
tired to Concord. From this time Alcott 
devoted himself to expounding reform 
views on a great variety of subjects. He 
was associated intimately with Emerson, 
Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Channing, be¬ 
came dean of the Concord School of Phi¬ 
losophy, and was a leader among the 
Transcendentalists. Emerson and other 
eminent thinkers have acknowledged an 
obligation to Alcott. He may be com¬ 
pared with Coleridge, as one who, while 
his own work was fragmentary, became 
a powerful agency in changing and di¬ 
recting the current of philosophic thought. 

Alcott, Louisa May (1832-1888), an 
American story writer. She was the 
daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott, an edu¬ 
cator and lecturer of some note, an inti¬ 
mate friend of Emerson. She was born 
at Germantown, Pennsylvania. When 
she was two years old, her parents moved 
to Boston, and six years later they settled 
at Concord. Here this gifted woman 
spent the greater part of her life, doing 
housework, waiting on her father, com¬ 
posing magazine articles, and writing sto¬ 
ries for children. In 1862 she went to 
Washington as a war hospital nurse. On 
her return she published Hospital Sketches, 
which proved that her real talent lay in 
telling simple, wholesome stories of com¬ 
monplace' people. Up to this time she 
had written only “pot boilers,” most of 
them of a sensational character, having 
no permanent value. In 1868 Little 
Women was published. Upon this story 
Miss Alcott’s real reputation rests. It is 
the most popular juvenile book ever pro¬ 
duced in America. Sixty thousand copies 
were sold the first year. Little Men, writ¬ 
ten in the same vein, is also a favorite. 
Other popular stories are Eight Cousins, 
Rose in Bloom, Old Fashioned Girl, Un - 


ALCUIN—ALDER 


der the Lilacs, Jack and Jill, Jo's Boys. 
Miss Alcott published also several volumes 
of short stories. Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag, Sil¬ 
ver Pitchers, Proverb Stories, Spinning 
Wheel Stories, and Lulu's Library are 
among them. 

Little Women is the story of the lives 
of Miss Alcott and her three sisters. Some 
one has said of it that it seems to be 
an addition to one’s actual experiences, 
rather than to one’s memories of fiction. 
This gives the keynote to the popularity 
of Miss Alcott’s stories. They are faulty 
from a literary point of view. They have 
little plot or artistic qualities of any sort. 
They are simply wholesome, happy, breezy 
stories of boys and girls who are very 
natural, very faulty, but who are grow¬ 
ing continually toward their ideals. 

<( Little Women is the world-photograph 
of the New England home and the Ameri¬ 
can girl.” Miss Alcott’s books still sell 
at the rate of 100,000 a year, and of Little 
Women, alone, written over forty years 
ago, 20,000 copies were sold in 1908. The 
famous quartette of girls are all dead now, 
but the originals of the Demi and Daisy of 
the book, and a daughter of Amy still live 
and divide the royalties accruing from 
their aunt’s labor. 

It was Miss Alcott’s custom, when she 
had some important piece of writing on 
hand, to go into Boston. There, in a lit¬ 
tle garret room surrounded by her books 
and papers, she would put her whole heart 
and mind to the work till it was finished. 
She died in Concord two days after the 
death of her father. The old Alcott home 
and the Alcott lot in the burying ground, 
near the graves of Hawthorne, Thoreau, 
and Emerson, are seen by many visitors. 
Louisa May Alcott, JJer Life, Letters 
and Journals, by Ednah D. Cheney, is al¬ 
most as entertaining a story as any writ¬ 
ten by Miss Alcott herself. 

Alcuin, al'kwin (735-804), an English 
prelate and scholar. He was born at York, 
England, and died at Tours, France. Al¬ 
cuin wrote treatises on grammar, rhetoric, 
history, spelling, argumentation, theology, 
and other subjects. Charlemagne invited 
him to settle on the continent and to be¬ 


come the master of the “School of the Pal¬ 
ace.” During his lifetime Alcuin was the 
confidante and adviser of Charlemagne in 
education and in church affairs. The fol¬ 
lowing extract is taken from a letter writ¬ 
ten (in Latin, of course,) by Alcuin to 
Charlemagne. The monastery of St. Mar¬ 
tin was at Tours: 

“In obedience to your exhortation and wise 
desire, I apply myself in serving out to some 
of my pupils in this house of Saint Martin the. 
honey of the holy writings; I essay to intoxi¬ 
cate others with the old wine of antique studies; 
one class I nourish with the fruits of grammati¬ 
cal science; in the eyes of another, I display 
the order of the stars.” . . . 

“I have schools of singers, many of whom 
are already sufficiently instructed to be able to 
teach others. ... I have also done in this church 
what lay in my power, as to copying books. 
... I have roofed the great church of this 
town, . . . and have reconstructed a portion of 
the walls; ... for the priests, I have con¬ 
structed a cloister.” 

See Charlemagne. 

Alden, Isabella McDonald (1841- ), 

an American author, who wrote under the 
pen name of “Pansy.” She was born at 
Rochester, New York. Mrs. Alden wrote 
a series of about 75 books for juveniles, 
which were called the Pansy Books. She 
also wrote for more mature readers a life 
of Christ, under the title The Prince of 
Peace, Unto the End, Her Own Way, and 
A King's Daughter. She was at various 
times connected with newspapers. 

Alden, al'den, John (1599-1687), one 
of the Pilgrim fathers. In England he 
was a cooper and resided at Southampton. 
He came to Plymouth in the Mayflower 
in 1620, and was a man of importance in 
Plymouth colony for fifty years. He is 
the suitor of “Priscilla” in Longfellow’s 
I he Courtship of Miles Standish. As a 
matter of history, John Alden was the 
confidential assistant of Captain Standish 
and lived in his family. His marriage 
with Priscilla was the third wedding in 
the colony. 

Alder, al'der, a genus of trees and 
shrubs. There are twenty kinds of alder 
in the northern hemisphere. The most 
ornamental species is a native of Japan. 

I here are four American alders growing 
ordinarily from eight to forty feet in height. 


ALDERNEY—ALDRICH 


% 


Alders look very much like willows, but 
they are closely related to the birches, oaks, 
and hazels. The surest way to tell an alder 
from a willow is by the seed. The flat, 
smooth seeds of an alder are disposed be¬ 
tween the scales of egg-shaped or oblong 
catkins, something after the manner of 
seeds in pine cones; while the seeds of a 
willow are clothed with silky down, and 
are crowded in a pod after the fashion of 
poplar and cottonwood seeds. Emerson, 
a close observer of nature, knew the dif¬ 
ference well, and wrote: 

I thought the sparrow’s note from heaven 

Singing at dawn on the alder bough. 

Alder bark is useful in tanning. It 
furnishes a valuable dye. The English 
find the wood of the alder durable in wa¬ 
ter. They employ it for sluices, mill-work, 
and piling. Like willow, the wood makes 
valuable charcoal for use in the arts, and 
especially in the manufacture of gunpow¬ 
der. The roots of the alder are covered 
by tubercles formed by bacteria. These 
colonies of bacteria gather and fix the 
nitrogen of the air, as in the case of clover, 
and enrich the soil. 

See Nitrogen. 

Alderney. See Channel Islands. 

Aldershot, al'der-shot, a military camp 
about thirty-five miles from London. It 
was established in 1855 as a training camp 
for soldiers. The British government has 
expended $20,000,000 there. Large bar¬ 
racks and other conveniences enable the 
military authorities to train troops in the 
manual of arms and in field manoeuvers, 
before they are sent away on garrison duty 
or to the scene of actual war. The pres¬ 
ence of a permanent garrison and of large 
bodies of troops at other times has fos¬ 
tered the growth of a well built town of 
the same name. Hotels provide for the 
wants of visitors. Tradesmen of all sorts 
relieve the soldiers of their spare coin. Pop¬ 
ulation, 30,000. 

Aldine, al'dln, a name given to editions 
Of classics issued by Aldus and his de¬ 
scendants in Venice between 1490 and 
1597. The Aldine printing office existed 
for 107 years. In addition to Greek and 
Roman classics, the works of Dante, Pe- 


\ 

trarch, and Boccacio came from the Aldine 
press,—in all 908 different works. An 
“Aldine” is prized for the accuracy of the 
text, and for its beautiful printing and 
binding. 

Alderman, Edwin Anderson (1861- ), 
an American educator, was born at Wil¬ 
mington, North Carolina, and educated at 
North Carolina University. Dr. Aider- 
man began a career of teaching immedi¬ 
ately upon leaving' the university, and has 
been successively superintendent of city 
schools at Goldsboro, North Carolina, as¬ 
sistant State superintendent of instruction 
in North Carolina and professor in the 
State Normal College. Dr. Alderman was 
professor of pedagogy at his alma mater 
for four years, 1892-96, and president 
from 1896 to 1899. After serving as pres¬ 
ident of Tulane University for four years, 
he was elected president of the University 
of Virginia. He has served as director of 
the Southern Education Board. 

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey (1836- 
1909), an American writer. He was born 
at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He 
passed part of his boyhood in Louisiana. 
He prepared for Harvard College, but 
was prevented by his father’s death from 
taking a course. Instead he entered the 
counting house of a New York uncle, but 
not enjoying the work he turned his at¬ 
tention to literature. He was encouraged 
by Halleck, Holmes, and other literary 
men. He wrote for Putnam’s, the Knick¬ 
erbocker Magazine, the New York Even¬ 
ing Mirror, edited Every Saturday, and, in 
1881, he succeeded Howells as editor of 
the Atlantic Monthly. In later years both 
Harvard and Yale conferred honorary de¬ 
grees upon him. Aldrich is known best 
as the author of the famous Story of a 
Bad Boy, a wholesome and charming tale 
of a real boy who, while he is not exactly 
a model, is by no means so very “bad.” 
Lowell said of it that he wished the book 
“had been twice as large.” One of Mr. 
Aldrich’s most humorous short stories is 
Marjorie Daw. He has written two vol¬ 
umes of poems, of which the ballad, Ba- 
bie Bell, may be regarded as the gem. 
His blank verse has won high praise, but 


ALE—ALEXANDER 


Aldrich himself frankly owned that he 
preferred 

The lyric. 

Ever on the lip, 

Rather than the epic 
Memory lets slip. 

Other quotations are: 

See where at intervals the firefly’s spark 
Glimmers and melts into the fragrant dark; 
Gilds a leaf’s edge one happy instant, then 
Leaves darkness all a mystery again. 

Who lacks the art to shape his thought, I hold 
Were little poorer if he lacked the thought. 

If my best wine mislikes thy taste 

And my best service wins thy frown. 
Then tarry not, I bid thee haste; 

There’s many another Inn in town. 


Mr. Aldrich’s verse is as faultless in technique 
as Tennyson’s, and shows a Keats-like love of 
sensuous beauty; but it lacks originality and 
largeness of imagination.—Bronson. 

Aldrich is our master miniature painter in 
verse. No other American poet has imposed 
upon himself such rigid restraints of perfect 
workmanship.—Abernethy. 

Aldrich has produced the only uniformly ar¬ 
tistic body of verse in the course of American 
literature.—Albert Phelps. 

Ale, a fermented liquor akin to beer. 
“Ale, as the term is generally under¬ 
stood, is a pale liquor brewed from light¬ 
ly-dried malt, and abounding more or less 
in undecomposed saccharine matter and 
the bitter and fragrant principles of the 
hop.” Ale is a favorite beverage in Eng¬ 
land, corresponding to the beer of Ger¬ 
many. Formerly homemade ale was 
brewed under the direct management of 
the housewife. Ale differs from the 
stronger alcoholic liquids in that only a 
small portion of the sugar is changed by 
the action of yeast into alcohol. If bot¬ 
tled, however, or allowed to stand in a 
barrel, fermentation is likely to resume. 
The ale sharpens, cures, becoming mild 
ale in a few days, pale ale in a month or 
two, and strong ale in not less than a year. 
British ales contain from one to eight per 
cent of alcohol. See Yeast; Beer. 

Alembert, a-lon-ber', Jean d’, written 
also D’Alembert (1717-1783), a noted 
French scholar. He was a native of Par¬ 
is. His mother, a court beauty, but an 
unmarried woman of fashion and lax mor¬ 
als, left him when a babe on the steps of 
a church. He was found by the police 


and given to a glasscutter’s wife. When 
he became famous, his real mother made 
herself known; but Alembert repulsed her 
with the words, “I know but one mother, 
the g’ tier’s wife.” Alembert wrote the 
matl .natical articles, the introduction, 
and many biographical sketches for the fa¬ 
mous French encyclopedia. In 1722 he 
was made secretary of the French Acade¬ 
my. He represented the view r s of Vol¬ 
taire and his friends. Among investiga¬ 
tions of popular interest conducted by 
Alembert are those which relate to the 
theory of winds and the precession of the 
equinoxes. 

Alewife. See Shad. 

Aleutian Islands. See Alaska. 

Alexander the Great (356-323 B. C.), 
son of Philip of Macedon and the Princess 
Olympias. t Philip was a king of wide 
views. He provided the best possible ed¬ 
ucation for his promising son, employing 
as a private tutor no less a person than 
the great Aristotle. Alexander was 
trained in manly exercises and showed a 
fondness for Grecian literature, particular¬ 
ly Homer’s Iliad. He traced a fancied 
relationship between himself and Achilles 
and made that hero his model. Alexander 
was a handsome youth, skilled in the han¬ 
dling of horses, and, according to popular 
accounts, absolutely without fear. Philip 
was assassinated 336 B. C., while prepar¬ 
ing for a war with Persia. Some accounts 
have it that Alexander was privy to the 
crime, being actuated by the double mo¬ 
tive of avenging the wrongs of his di¬ 
vorced mother, Olympias, and of desiring 
to assume charge of the expedition. Th« 
truth can never be known. 

Alexander succeeded his father at the 
age of twenty. The accession of a mere 
stripling to the throne of Macedon was 
the signal for a general revolt, not only 
of the ruder tribes, but of the Grecian 
cities as well. Alexander’s subsequent 
movements have been compared to bolts 
of lightning. He struck this way and that, 
reducing his allies to abject submission. 
Thebes with its temples and palaces he 
devoted to plunder and destruction, spar¬ 
ing, it is said, the home of Pindar, the 
poet, for whose odes to the victors in the 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


various Olympic _and Delphian games he 
had the greatest admiration. 

Having set the internal affairs of his 
kingdom in order, Alexander next turned 
his mind to the conquest of the world. 
He decided to prosecute with vigor the 
campaign against the Persians his father 
had commenced. He crossed the Helles¬ 
pont in the spring of 334 B. C. with 
35,000 thoroughly disciplined troops. This 
was before the day of gunpowder. Each 
soldier carried a shield to ward off the darts 
of his assailants. The front of each charg¬ 
ing phalanx bristled with spears that pre¬ 
vented the enemy from coming within ten 
feet of the front rank. Although the Per¬ 
sians met Alexander’s force with large 
armies and fought, particularly the no¬ 
bles, with the most desperate bravery, it 
is said that he made himself master of 
Asia Minor with a loss of but 120 men. 
Mercenary Greek soldiers found fighting 
in the ranks of the Persian hosts were 
cut down without mercy. 

Alexander’s next step was to gain pos¬ 
session of the Syrian coast and of the 
Mediterranean. At Issus, a narrow plain 
between the mountains and the sea, he met 
King Darius in person at the head of a 
large army. The very narrowness of 
space enabled the Grecian phalanx to 
sweep this force before them. Darius fled 
to organize another army and make an¬ 
other stand for his life and kingdom. 

Alexander now took time to enter Egypt, 
where he founded Alexandria. He laid 
siege to the ancient city of Tyre. In the 
following October, 331 B. C., Alexander’s 
army met and routed a vast host, the last 
army of the Persians, in the battle of Ar- 
bela. This settled the fate of the Persian 
empire and made Alexander master of the 
eastern world. Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, 
and Persepolis, the ancient capitals of the 
East, with their war chests and enormous 
hoards of treasure, fell in time into his 
hands. 

During the next six years Alexander 
carried the arms of Greece eastward to 
the shores of the Indus. He established 
a series of seventy walled towns with 
paved and lighted streets, reaching from 
Greece to the farthest limits of his con¬ 


quests. Garrisons of soldiers were placed 
in each post, and traders with their cara¬ 
vans were encouraged to trade and travel 
in security. In one sense of the word 
Alexander’s conquest was a laying hold 
of the entire trade of the east,—the mo¬ 
nopolizing of the caravan traffic between 
the Mediterranean Sea and the Orient. 
Goods passing to or from China, India, 
Afghanistan, Persia, Egypt, Asia Minor, 
and Greece were safe from robbery and 
plunder at the trading posts established 
by Alexander, and along the routes pa¬ 
trolled by the soldiers of Greece. A peri¬ 
od of immense wealth and commercial 
prosperity followed the policing of the 
eastern world in accordance with Alexan¬ 
der’s large plans. 

In the midst of all his calculations for 
further conquest and a still more univer¬ 
sal commercial supremacy, including, it is 
thought, the subjugation and the policing 
of China, Alexander died in a drunken 
orgy at Babylon, at the age of thirty-three. 
The story of his love for his mother; his 
boyhood; his war horse, Bucephalus; his 
affection for Aristotle, to whom he never 
ceased to send new plants and animals, 
curious shells, and other articles of inter¬ 
est picked up during his campaigns; his 
admiration for Homer; the cutting of the 
Gordian knot; the siege of Tyre; his hu¬ 
mane treatment of Darius and his unfor¬ 
tunate family; his handsome face and li¬ 
centious life, and his vast plans for a 
world organization of industries and com¬ 
merce into one thoroughly governed and 
protected system—are full of interest and 
would require volumes for their com¬ 
plete discussion. Scholars are just be¬ 
ginning to appreciate the tremendous sig¬ 
nificance of the Grecian conquest of the 
eastern world. 

At Alexander’s death the empire fell 
into fragments, three of which were con¬ 
siderable kingdoms. Alexandria became 
the capital of Egypt; Antioch of Syria; 
Athens of Macedonia. Of the smaller 
fragments, Rhodes and Pergamus were 
centers of culture. Alexander’s body lies in 
a mausoleum at Alexandria. 

See Philip (of Macedon) ; Macedonia; 
Phalanx; Gordian Knot; Alexandria 


ALEXANDER 


* 


Alexander I (1777-1825), emperor of 
Russia. In 1801 Alexander succeeded his 
father, Paul, on the Russian throne. The 
history of Alexander is intimately connect¬ 
ed with that of Napoleon. In 1805 he 
joined Great Britain, Austria, and Sweden 
in a coalition against France. This com¬ 
bination was hit hard by the great battle of 
Austerlitz, December 2, 1805. Alexander 
led his shattered army home. After the 
disastrous battle of Jena, October 14, 1806, 
Alexander met Napoleon on a raft in the 
river Niemen and agreed to the treaty of 
Tilsit, which was signed July 7, 1807. 
Alexander agreed to give Napoleon a free 
hand in the west, and Napoleon was to al¬ 
low Alexander to extend the territory of 
Russia in the east. Neither was to join a 
combination against the other. Five years 
later, however, Alexander joined his old 
allies against France. This resumption of 
hostilities aroused Napoleon’s ire, and led 
to the assembling of the greatest army that 
France had ever sent forth. The story of 
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, the burn¬ 
ing of Moscow, and the humiliating retreat 
of Napoleon, form one of the most inter¬ 
esting chapters of modern history. Alex¬ 
ander participated in the final campaign 
against France, and was one of the mon- 
archs who entered Paris in 1814 at the 
head of 150,000 men. Alexander was a 
party to the Holy Alliance. During the 
closing years of his reign Alexander did 
much to improve the internal conditions of 
his vast dominions. In this respect he 
ranks with Peter the Great. He prepared 
the way for the abolition of serfdom, en¬ 
couraged the opening of schools and bet¬ 
ter methods of tillage, and sought to se¬ 
cure the spread of manufactures and the 
extension of commerce. He made St. Pe¬ 
tersburg a center of literature and fine arts. 
He was succeeded by his second brother, 
Nicholas I. 

Alexander II (1818-1881), emperor 
of Russia. He succeeded Nicholas I in 
1855. He began his reign with progres¬ 
sive ideas. Though bitterly opposed by the 
nobles, he completely emancipated the 
serfs by edict, March 2, 1861. He reor¬ 
ganized the Russian army, and is given 
credit for important reforms in depart¬ 


ments of administration and justice. He 
introduced trial by jury. He gave the 
press more freedom, and allowed the uni¬ 
versities greater liberty. The professors 
and students were allowed a degree of free 
speech hitherto unknown in Russia. As 
might be expected, a spirit of radicalism 
took root rapidly. It grew too fast to 
please the emperor. He lacked the nerve 
to go on with the work he had begun. He 
began to hesitate, then to withdraw some 
of the privileges he had granted. The Ni¬ 
hilists began to attack him. He instruct¬ 
ed the police to stop the spread of socialis¬ 
tic doctrines, especially among working 
men. The police took severe measures. 
Meetings were broken up with barbaric 
cruelty. The Nihilists took up the issue, 
and finally Alexander was assassinated by 
them in St. Petersburg, March 13, 1881. 
A dynamite bomb took his life away on the 
very day before he had purposed issuing an 
edict granting some of the popular de¬ 
mands. He was succeeded by his son Al¬ 
exander III. 

Alexander III (1241-1286), king of 
Scotland. He ascended the Scottish 
throne in 1249. Alexander was be¬ 
trothed in infancy to the daughter of 
Henry III, king of England. The mar¬ 
riage was hastened for state reasons, and 
was celebrated in York Christmas Day, 
1251, when Alexander was but ten years 
old. During Alexander’s minority the 
kingdom was managed by nobles, who 
strove for the position. In 1260, while at 
the court of England, his daughter Mar¬ 
garet, afterward the wife of Eric of Nor¬ 
way, was born. In 1263 the battle of 
Largs freed Scotland from an invasion led 
by Haco, king of Norway. Alexander’s 
administration of his kingdom was ener¬ 
getic and far-seeing. He improved the 
condition of the Scottish people, enforced 
justice in the collection of taxes, and 
repressed violence in every direction. 
He was killed March 12, 1286, by a fall 
from his horse while riding on the coast 
near Edinburgh. The independence of 
Scotland received a severe blow in Alexan¬ 
der’s death. His immediate successors were 
not able to cope with the superior strength 
and craft of England. 


ALEX AN DER—ALEXANDRIA 


Alexander, John White (1856-1915), 
an American artist. He was born at Alle¬ 
ghany City, Pennsylvania. His first public 
work was in connection with the Art 
Department of Harper and Brothers. 
Later he studied abroad, his paintings at¬ 
tracting attention about 1893. In 1897 
he received the gold medal of the Philadel¬ 
phia Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1900 
gold medals at the Paris Exhibition. His 
pictures appear in many European and 
American collections. In the east hall of 
the Congressional Library at Washington 
six lunettes are filled with Alexander’s 
work, the series representing The History 
of the Book, reproductions of which are 
found most appropriately in many public 
and school libraries of the country. 

Alexander’s Feast, an ode for St. Ce¬ 
cilia’s day, written by John Dryden in 
1697. See Dryden. 

Alexander Severus, Roman emperor 
from A.D. 222 to 235, was the cousin, 
adopted son, and successor of Heliogabalus. 
He was well educated and kindly, and gov¬ 
erned laudably in peace and war. He de¬ 
feated a Persian host under Artaxerxes, 
but was never wdiolly successful in curb¬ 
ing his own mutinous praetorian guards. 
During an expedition into Gaul to sup¬ 
press the Germans, he and his mother were 
murdered during an uprising of his Gallic 
troops, headed by a Thracian legionary, 
Maximinus, who succeeded Alexander as 
emperor. 

Alexandria, a seaport city of Egypt, 
situated on the Delta of the Nile. It was 
founded by Alexander the Great, and 
named for himself, 332 B. C. After the 
death of its founder, Alexandria became 
the seat of the Ptolemies, and was adorned 
with great magnificence. The ancient city 
was about fifteen miles in circumference, 
and was intersected by two main streets, 
crossing it at right angles in the center, 
thus dividing the city into four quarters. 
These streets were lined by magnificent 
colonnades, running their entire length. 
There were many noted buildings. The 
museum was a sort of university in which 
learned men were maintained at public 
expense. The Alexandrian Library was the 
most noted in the world. An emporium 


or exchange was built for the convenience 
of caravans and of the merchants who came 
to Alexandria by sea from all parts of the 
world. The Necropolis, the most magnifi¬ 
cent burial ground of antiquity, lay west 
of the city. A race course with seats for 
spectators was built on the opposite side. 
Of numerous imposing monuments, Pom- 
pey’s Pillar, a shaft of red granite seventy- 
five feet high, still stands; two obelisks 
known as Cleopatra’s Needles lay half 
buried in the sand for centuries. One of 
them now stands on the Thames embank¬ 
ment in London, the other has been set up 
in Central Park, New York City. 

The population of ancient Alexandria 
is variously estimated; but, in the time of 
its greatest prosperity, it is thought to have 
included 600,000 inhabitants, half slaves, 
half free. Under the Ptolemies it ranked 
with Rome and Antioch 

A modern city, built farther into the 
sea than the old one, now contains a popu¬ 
lation of about 400,000 Arabs, Turks, 
Jews, Copts, Greeks, and people from 
western Europe. The European part of 
the city is well paved and is lined with 
attractive hotels, cafes, stores, and places 
of business. The city is connected by ca¬ 
nal and railroad with the Nile and the 
Suez Canal. A harbor, artificially pro¬ 
tected by a mole costing $10,000,000, is 
the finest on the Mediterranean. In place 
of the old Pharos, one of the seven won¬ 
ders of the world, a modern lighthouse, 
whose beams may be seen twenty miles 
at sea, lights the way into the harbor. The 
student should therefore bear in mind two 
cities: one, an ancient, magnificent Alex¬ 
andria, the seat of government of the 
Ptolemies, the home of the Alexandrian 
Library and philosophy, the resort of cara¬ 
vans ; the other, a modern commercial city, 
the metropolis of a new Egypt, and an 
eager sharer in the commerce that passes 
through the Suez Canal. 

When Alexander reached the Egyptian milita¬ 
ry station at the little town or village of Rhako- 
tis, he saw with the quick eye of a great com¬ 
mander how to turn this petty settlement into 
a great city, and to make its roadstead, out of 
which ships could be blown by a change of 
wind, into a double harbour roomy enough to 
shelter the navies of the . world. All that was 


ALEXANDRIA—ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL 


needed was to join the island by a mole to the 
continent. The site was admirably secure and 
convenient,—a narrow strip of land between 
the Mediterranean and the great inland Lake 
Mareotis. The whole northern side faced the 
two harbours, which were bounded east and west 
by the mole, and beyond by the long, narrow, 
rocky island of Pharos, stretching parallel with 
the coast. On the south was the inland port 
of Lake Mareotis.—R. S. Poole, Cities of Egypt. 

Let us not forget the vast number of stran¬ 
gers from all parts of the world whom trade 
and politics brought there. It was the great 
mart where the wealth of Europe and of Asia 
changed hands. Alexander had opened the sea¬ 
way by exploring the coasts of Media and Per¬ 
sia. Caravans from the head of the Persian 
Gulf, and ships on the Red Sea, brought all 
the wonders of Ceylon and China, as well as 
of Further India, to Alexandria. There, too, the 
wealth of Spain and Gaul, the produce of Italy 
and Macedonia, the amber of the Baltic and the 
salt fish of Pontus, the silver of Spain and the 
copper of Cyprus, the timber of Macedonia and 
Crete, the pottery and oil of Greece—a thou¬ 
sand imports from all the Mediterranean—came 
to be exchanged for the spices of Arabia, the 
splendid birds and embroideries of India and 
Ceylon, the gold and ivory of Africa, the an¬ 
telopes, the apes, the leopards, the elephants of 
tropical climes.—J. P. Mahaffy, The Story of 
Alexander’s Empire. 

Alexandria, Va., is beautifully located 
on the west bank of the Potomac, 6 miles 
below, and in view of, the National Cap¬ 
ital, with which it has hourly rail and 
ferry connection. The original name was 
Bellhaven. The city has a fine harbor, 
accommodating vessels of heavy tonnage. 
It contains some important manufacturing 
establishments, one of them the largest 
steam pump factory in the United States. 
Alexandria was the home town of George 
Washington. The census of 1920 gave the 

population as 18,060. 

Alexandrian Library, The, one of the 
earliest and most noted libraries in the 
world. It was formed during the rule of 
the Ptolemies. The books were kept in 
the museum and in the temple of Serapis 
of Alexandria. The museum was a sort 
of university, in wMch librarians and other 
noted men, maint?ined at public expense, 
gave their lives to gaining and dispensing 
knowledge. 

The Alexandrian Library contained 
probably the largest collection of books 
before the invention of printing. The vol¬ 
umes, or rolls, which must have had some¬ 


what the appearance of rolls of wall paper, 
reached the enormous number, it is 
claimed, of 400,000, some authorities say, 
700,000. These volumes, it must be re¬ 
membered, were only written manuscripts, 
several being required often for a single 
work. For instance, the Iliad was con¬ 
tained in twenty-four volumes or rolls, 
instead of the single printed book of the 
present day. Different editions of the 
same book were made by scribes, who 
copied them carefully by hand, a process 
requiring much time and patient labor. Il¬ 
lumined volumes, the pages of which are 
as carefully executed as copper engravings, 
are to be seen in European libraries. 

A large part of the library was burned 
during the siege of Alexandria by Julius 
Caesar; but it was replaced by a new 
collection from Pergamus, presented by 
Mark Antony to Cleopatra. The library 
again increased. The Serapion, or temple of 
Serapis, in which the volumes were kept 
at this time, was destroyed, 391 A. D., by 
a mob of fanatic Christians led by Arch¬ 
bishop Theophilus, with the permission 
of the Emperor Theodosius. Most, if not 
all, of the books were destroyed with it. 
Nevertheless, this is the library which the 
Mohammedans have been accused of burn¬ 
ing about 640 A. D., when the Arabs con¬ 
quered the city. A story runs to the ef¬ 
fect that the Arabian caliph, when asked 
to preserve the library, replied that, if the 
books contained only what was in the 
Koran, they were unnecessary; and if they 
contained anything else, they were false 
and ought to be burned; so they were 
used for fuel for the baths of the city. 

See Libraries; Euclid; Ptolemies. 

Alexandrian School, a term used with 
various and somewhat vague significations. 
In its most specific use it is applied to a 
school of Christian theology, the origin 
of which is unknown but which flourished 
in Alexandria during the early centuries 
of the Christian era. It was a catechetical 
school, that is, instruction was given by 
means of question and answer. Pantaenus 
was one of its most notable instructors; and 
the names of the Christian philosophers, 
Origen and Clement of Alexandria, are 
associated with it. Clement, who is re- 


ALFADUR—ALFALFA 


garded as one of the fathers of the Chris¬ 
tian church, succeeded Pantaenus as head 
of the school. 

With scholars, however, the term Alexan¬ 
drian School means something more than 
this catechetical school of theology. It 
stands for nearly a thousand years of in¬ 
tellectual activity,—for the tendencies, not 
in theology alone, but in literature, science, 
and philosophy, which characterized the 
period from Ptolemy Soter (who reigned 
306-285 B. C.) to the middle of the 
seventh century A. D. When used in this 
way the word school does not mean what 
it does when we say the school of Stoics 
for instance. The Alexandrian School was 
not a company of persons united by belief 
in the same theories or principles. It was 
rather a period of advancement in thought 
and learning. Making use of the term, 
then, in this sense, the Alexandrian School 
falls naturally into two divisions, some 
say two Alexandrian Schools, the first ex¬ 
tending from the beginning of Ptolemy 
Soter’s reign, 306 B. C., till the Roman 
Conquest, about 30 B. C., the second from 
30 B. C. until 641 A. D., when the city 
was conquered by the Arabs. The first of 
these periods is characterized, naturally 
enough, by Greek influence, and is spoken 
of as the School of Science and Literature. 

In Ptolemy’s Museum the greatest schol¬ 
ars from all countries lived, supported by 
public funds, and spent their time in study 
and research. Their literary work has not 
the quality of originality. The great works 
of Greece were the natural expression of 
a free people. Although imitated at Al¬ 
exandria the spirit of the earlier writers 
was lacking. Moreover, supported by an 
absolute monarch, these writers felt, per¬ 
haps unconsciously, their limitations. We 
find, therefore, few works that are really 
great from a literary point of view. Epic, 
lyric, and elegiac poetry was produced, 
however, and dramatic poetry to some ex¬ 
tent, while scholars wrote their learned 
treatises in poetic form and spent much 
time on grammar, prosody, and exhaustive 
criticisms. Mathematics and physical sci¬ 
ence were favorite subjects, in which prog¬ 
ress was made. Names noteworthy in 
this period are those of Callimachus, 


librarian and poet; Euclid, the mathematfi 
cian; Hipparchus, founder of mathemati¬ 
cal astronomy; and Theocritus, the Ro¬ 
man, the greatest poet of that era. 

The second period or second Alexan¬ 
drian School may be called the School of 
Philosophy. From this time literature prop¬ 
er is Roman instead of Alexandrian, the 
intellectual forces in Alexandria turning 
to philosophy rather than to poetry or sci¬ 
ence. Influences were strangely mingled, 
the reasoning of the refined and imagina¬ 
tive Greek, the practical, positive Roman, 
the visionary, idealistic Jew, the mystic 
Hindu, all brought to bear upon pagan 
philosophy and the new teachings of Chris¬ 
tianity. The outgrowth of this movement 
was Neo-Platonism, a name sometimes 
given to Alexandrian philosophy as a 
whole. The word Neo-Platonism means 
a new late Platonic philosophy, and the 
chief characteristic of the movement was 
the attempt to reconcile Greek philosophy 
with the teachings of Christianity. In 
other words, the Alexandrian philosophy 
may be described as Christian truth modi¬ 
fied by philosophic speculation. Of this 
movement the catechetical school mention¬ 
ed at the beginning of this article was a 
part. See Alexandria; Origen; Theoc¬ 
ritus. 

Alfadur, or Alfadir, al-fa'dir, all-fa¬ 
ther, in Norse mythology, an appellation 
of Odin, as the supreme god of all man¬ 
kind. See Odin. 

Alfalfa, or Lucerne, a forage plant. 
It is a perennial, and is related closely 
to the clovers. Alfalfa is native to south¬ 
western Asia, where it was in use centuries 
before the Christian Era. It followed lines 
of travel westward into the Mediterranean 
countries, reaching Spain with the Sara¬ 
cens in the eighth century. Alfalfa is 
a Spanish word, derived, in turn, from an 
Arabic word meaning, it is said, the best 
sort of fodder. The plant was introduced 
into the eastern part of the United States 
from Europe as lucerne, a name derived 
from the canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. 
Alfalfa, under the Spanish name, was in¬ 
troduced into California from Chile about 
1854. The Spanish or western name is 
now universal. 


ALFHEIM 


Alfalfa is an upright plant with stems 
from one to four feet high. A cluster of 
these stems grows from a spreading crown. 
The flowers are usually purple, with pet¬ 
als shaped like those of the pea. The 
pods are coiled in two or three spirals. 
The seeds are kidney shaped. The roots 
penetrate from four to twelve feet, en¬ 
abling the plant to grow in dry places. 
In practical farming it is found advanta¬ 
geous to split the crowns with a disk plow 
in order to produce finer stems. 

Alfalfa prefers deep, rich, mellow, well 
drained soil; but it has proved to be a 
plant of wonderful drouth-resisting pow¬ 
ers. It may be raised on sandy or even 
gravelly soil, where ordinary forage plants 
die. Much attention has been given to 
improved varieties. Mr. N. E. Hansen, 
of the South Dakota Agricultural College, 
has been instrumental in the introduction 
of a hardy variety from the drier, colder 
parts of Turkestan. This variety has the 
power of withstanding severe frost. It 
has been found that seed matured in the 
semi-arid states, particularly Utah, with¬ 
out irrigation, produces plants capable of 
withstanding extreme drouth. 

Alfalfa production in the United States 
in 1919 was as follows: 


State 

Tons 

State 

Tons 

Kans. .. 

....2,488,156 

Ky. 

... 81,298 

Nebr. 

....2,219,549 

Minn. ... 

.... 115,327 

Colo. . .. 

.... 1,779,005 

Pa. 

... 64,326 

Calif. ... 

.. .2,412,554 

Miss. 

... 65,354 

Idaho .. . 

....1,741,165 

Va. 

... 50,472 

S’. D. i.. 

.... 763,316 

Tenn. ... 

... 33,237 

Mont. .. . 

.... 586,683 

N. J. 

... 35,576 

Utah ... 

.... 748,949 

Md. 

... 25,142 

Okla. .. . 

.... 680,446 

Ala. 

... 13,105 

Wyo. ... 

.... 514,168 

La. •••••• 

... 17,224 

Wash. ... 

.... 655,876 

Me. 

... 11,844 

Ore. 

.... 592,640 

W. Va. .. 

... 59,122 

Iowa .. . 

.... 438,338 

N. C. 

5,769 

Mo. 

.... 365,036 

Ga. 

5,412 

N. Y. .. 

... 257,785 

S. C. 

5,896 

Nev. 

... 330,999 

Del. 

... 4,780 

N. M. .. 

... 278,595 

Vt. 

3,914 

Ariz. .. . 

.... 337,622 

Mass. .. . 

2,604 

Ohio . .. 

.... 187,904 

Conn. . 

... 2,520 

Ill. 

...-. 214,670 

N. H. 

707 

Mich. .. . 

.... 118,571 

R. I. 

304 

Wis. 

.... 149,929 

Fla. 

35 

Ind. 

.... 107,485 



Ark. 

.... 128,147 

Total .. 

..18,864,033 

N. D. ... 

.... 75,348 

Acreage 

. 8,629,111 

Tex. 

.... 137,043 




Alfalfa is a plant of growing impor¬ 
tance. With fodder corn, timothy, and 


clover, Eastern farmers have had an abun¬ 
dance of forage. Like red clover, alfalfa 
has failed in many fields for want of in¬ 
oculation with the bacteria necessary to 
the vigorous development of the plant. 
It has remained for the West to demon¬ 
strate that alfalfa is one of the great for¬ 
age plants. 

To get the best results, alfalfa should 
be cut just as it comes into bloom. It is 
important that it should not be allowed 
to dry until brittle. In that case the 
leaves, which contain about sixty-three per 
cent of the value of the plant, are likely 
to be lost. Where alfalfa does well at 
all, it may be cut two or three times dur¬ 
ing the season. Professor Coburn says 
that “in California and elsewhere, it has 
produced in a season, under the most fa¬ 
vorable conditions, with irrigation, six to 
nine cuttings, and, in Oklahoma, without 
irrigation, has allowed nine cuttings, av¬ 
eraging one and one-half tons per acre of 
cured hay.” 

The yield varies greatly, according to 
locality, soil, and season. From two to 
ten tons per acre are reasonable limits. 

Alfalfa has high feeding value. Like 
clover and pea straw it is rich in protein. 
Of late mills have been established for 
grinding alfalfa hay into meal. This meal 
is put up in sacks and used extensively by 
careful feeders to make up a “balanced 
ration.” Alfalfa meal is an excellent feed 
for milch cows and horses. It is the best 
substitute that has been found for green 
food for poultry. 

Like other farm crops, alfalfa has its 
enemies. The golden, thread-like stems of 
the dodder suck the life out of it. Vari¬ 
ous fungi rot the leaves and stems. The 
army worm and grasshopper are particu¬ 
larly fond of alfalfa leaves. Striped “go¬ 
phers” and prairie dogs do great damage. 
Thousands of acres of alfalfa have been 
destroyed completely in the Humboldt Val¬ 
ley by rapidly multiplying colonies of field 
mice. See Clover. 

Alfheim, alf'hlm, in Norse mythology, 
the domain of Freyr, the sun god, and the 
abode of the Elves of Light. The Elves of 
Light were beautiful, shining spirits, more 
brilliant than the sun. They loved the 




































ALFIERI—ALFRED 


light, were friendly to mankind, and usu¬ 
ally appeared as lovely children. 

Alfieri, Vittorio, Count (1749-1803), 
the greatest of the Italian dramatic poets. 
He was born as Asti, in Piedmont. In the 
splendid autobiography he left, he speaks 
of four periods in his life: the period of 
“vegetation”; of “uneducation”; of “dis¬ 
sipation” ; and of “production.” His chief 
interests were, in the order named, litera¬ 
ture, love and fine horses. An adequate 
fortune permitted travel and study at will. 
In 1775 his first tragedy, Cleopatra, was 
produced. The complete edition of his 
works is in 22 volumes. Important among 
his tragedies are Virginia, Oreste, Don 
Garcia, Saul and Timoleone. 

Alfonso XIII. (1886- ), king of Spain, 
the son of Alfonso XII. and Maria Chris¬ 
tina, Archduchess of Austria. Alfonso 
XII. died before his son’s birth, and the 
mother acted as regent until May 17, 1902, 
when the young king took the oath of 
office. Since that time the disturbed con¬ 
ditions which existed in Spain during the 
regency have given place gradually to or¬ 
der and prosperity. King Alfonso married 
in 1906 the Princess Ena of Battenberg, a 
grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. An 
heir to the throne was born in 1907, fol¬ 
lowed by five other princes and princesses. 
An attempt upon Alfonso’s life was made 
in 1913 by an anarchist, who shot at him 
but only wounded his horse. Alfonso, 
while maintaining strict neutrality during 
the World War, gave valuable aid to the 
allies by his intervention in behalf of 
prisoners of war. He also exerted him¬ 
self throughout the war to determine the 
fate of men reported “missing.” 

Alfonso is a patron of sports of all kinds, 
and is a very popular monarch. 

Alfred the Great (849-901), king of 
the West Saxons. He was born at Wan¬ 
tage in 849, and was buried at Winchester, 
October 28, 901. In his youth Alfred 
was educated at Rome and resided for a 
time at the French court of Charles the 
Bald. He was crowned by the West Sax¬ 
ons in 871. Alfred came to the throne in 
troublous times. The Danes were pressing 
into Wessex, and he was obliged to battle 
with them for the very life of his people. 


Disasters came one after another, but Al¬ 
fred was a man of the utmost determina¬ 
tion and was full of resources. At one 
time he was obliged to retire with a hand¬ 
ful of followers to an island in the marshes 
of the interior. 

After various fortunes of war, the Danes 
were brought to terms. They agreed to 
remain on the easterly side of Watling 
Street, a road running from London to 
Chester. In time they became vassals of 
the kings of Wessex. Guthrum, their king, 
and thirty chiefs were baptized. Alfred 
stood sponser for Guthrum and gave him 
an English name. The Danes made little 
more trouble. This arrangement left Al¬ 
fred in full control on his own side of 
Watling Street. He proceeded to combine 
various petty states into one Saxon king¬ 
dom, a work that was continued by his 
son, Edward the Elder. Alfred succeeded 
in giving all southern England a sem¬ 
blance, at least, of real nationality. For 
his day and age he appears to have had 
remarkable foresight. He foresaw that his 
kingdom was likely to be attacked by 
Danes and other adventurers. He showed 
the people that permanent freedom from 
invasion for the kingdom could be secured 
only by the building of ships with which 
to meet future invaders on their own ele¬ 
ment. This was the beginning of the Brit¬ 
ish navy. 

Apart from a few noble poems, notably 
of Caedmon, and the ballads and battle 
songs and fireside stories of the people, 
the literature of the day was wholly in 
the Latin language. Alfred himself trans¬ 
lated a number of valuable works into ' 
English, and encouraged others to do the 
same. Volumes of history and religious 
teachings were in this way made accessible 
to the people in their own language. This 
was the beginning of English prose. 

As a leader of troops amid difficulties, 
as a far-seeing statesman, a wise and just 
ruler, a friend of the people, a patriot, a 
scholar, and as a man, Alfred may be re¬ 
garded justly as one of the eminent men 
of England, fully entitled to the name 
of “The Great” which has been assigned 
him, not by those who knew and loved 
him, but by modern writers. In his own 


ALGAE—ALGEBRA 


* 


day Alfred’s title was “The Truth Teller.” 
In the troublous days of Norman invasion 
and of Norman oppression he was remem¬ 
bered as “England’s Darling.” 

Behold a pupil of the Monkish gown, 

The pious Alfred, King to Justice dear! 

Lord of the harp and liberating spear; 

Mirror of Princes! 

Algae, al'je, one of the lower orders 
of plants found almost exclusively in 
water, and from which it is probable all 
other plants have developed. They are 
distinguished from fungi in that they con¬ 
tain the green coloring matter known as 
chlorophyll, making them capable of pre¬ 
paring their own food. In size the algae 
vary from single cells to the giant kelps, 
rivalling in size and beauty a tropical 
forest. These are commonly called “sea¬ 
weeds.” Many of them have a commerical 
importance, some algae being edible, others 
furnishing iodine and bromine, while in 
certain localities algae are used as ferti¬ 
lizer. The twelve thousand species are 
classified as to color in four great groups, 
the blue-green and the green, to which the 
fresh water forms belong, and the brown 
and the red, mainly confined to salt water. 

Al'geci'ras Conference. This confer¬ 
ence of European powers concerning 
Morocco affairs was held in January 1906, 
at Algeciras, Spain, opposite Gibraltar. 
France, Spain, and Great Britain had en-, 
tered into an agreement concerning the 
trade control of Morocco, to which Ger¬ 
many objected. The relations between 
France and Germany became so strained 
over the situation that war was narrowly 
averted. At this conference, participated 
in by representatives of all the powers con¬ 
cerned, certain concessions were made and 
Germany was satisfied by the signing of 
what was designated as a “General Act,” 
providing for a state bank at Tangier, 
for an open door as regards trade, for the 
control of the police, and the suppression 
of illicit traffic in arms. A matter of 
interest in connection was the criticism of 
our government by the newspapers of 
Europe for sending delegates to represent 
the United States at the conference, citing 
it as an example of inconsistency in view of 
the Monroe Doctrine. President Roose¬ 


velt’s enemies also made use of it in an 
effort to discredit him. 

Algebra, a branch of mathematics. Sir 
Isaac Newton aimed to indicate at least 
the origin of the subject by calling it “Uni¬ 
versal Arithmetic.” Of the several dif¬ 
ferences between arithmetic and algebra, 
two may be mentioned. Arithmetic stops 
at zero; algebra goes farther. If we count 
backward in arithmetic, we say four, three, 
two, one, zero; here arithmetic stops. In 
algebra we may continue: four, three, 
two, one, zero, minus one, minus two, mi¬ 
nus three, and so on indefinitely, using mi¬ 
nus to indicate quantities on the other side 
of zero. In algebra the signs + and — 
have been adopted to indicate the positive 
and negative quantities, as they are called. 
The quantities that correspond to arithmet¬ 
ical quantities are known as positive. Those 
of the opposite nature are called negative. 

The nature of algebraic quantities may 
be illustrated further by reference to mul¬ 
tiplication. If we use the terms of a de¬ 
scending series for multiplicands and em¬ 
ploy a constant multiplier, we shall find 
that our products also form a descending 
series, and that they run into negative 
numbers, as for example: 

3 2 10—1—2 

2 2 2 2 2 2 


6 4 2 0 —2 —4 

Lest a false impression be given, it 
should be remembered that —2, for in¬ 
stance, is not to be regarded simply as 
two less than nothing. We may illustrate 
from the idea of property. A man who 
has nothing has zero. A hundred dollars 
more than zero is property. A hundred 
dollars less than nothing is a debt, and a 
debt is not only something, but it is a se¬ 
rious consideration. In the same way 
—2 is a real quantity. 

We may take a negative quantity for 
multiplicands and use the terms of a de¬ 
scending series for multipliers: 


—3 

—3 

—3 

—3 

—3 

—3 

—3 

3 

2 

1 

0 

—1 

—2 

—3 

—9 

—6 

—3 

0 

+3 

+6 

+9 




a m 

73 

£ 

5 s s 

72 

*2 "qJ 
CmQ 


CI'O 

hhCJ 


a c- 

T:r ° 

fl +-* 72 
C2 C 72 

+- c ctf 

72 q *—• 

a a oa 
o 5 .a 

w 


(MCCIO 


M e3 

rr> v 

m m 

rrt 

C 2 a> o 

°*£ ea 

•- Ky- r-7 ^ 

h~k U 

<2 -a 


Kct. 


t: hh 

g§ M 

kOh' 


r-iC^CO 
















































ALGERIA 


As the products form an ascending se¬ 
ries, we see that the product of two nega¬ 
tive factors is a positive quantity. 

A second respect in which algebra dif¬ 
fers from arithmetic is the consideration 
of unknown quantities. In algebra we 
may add, subtract, multiply, and divide 
quantities without knowing or needing to 
know what they are. For example: 

A farmer sold his sheep for m dollars 
and gained y dollars. What did they cost 
him? Ans. (m — y) dollars. 

A boy who earns b dollars a day spends 
x dollars a week. What can he save in 
three weeks’ time? 

Ans. (18Z> — 3x) dollars. 

The earliest traces of algebra are found 
among the Hindus. The following prob¬ 
lem illustrates the flowery style of the 
Hindus: 

“The square root of one-half the num¬ 
ber of bees in a swarm has flown out upon 
a jessamine bush, eight-ninths of the whole 
swarm remained behind; one female bee 
flies around a male bee that is buzzing 
within a lotus flower into which he was 
allured in the night by Its sweet odors, 
but is now imprisoned in it. Tell the num¬ 
ber of bees. Ans. 72.” 

The Egyptians and Babylonians had a 
knowledge of the elements of algebra. The 
following problem is from an Egyptian 
papyrus roll in the British Museum. It 
dates 2000 B. C. and is itself a copy of 
some older manuscript at that: 

“Heap, its two-thirds, its one-half, its 
one-seventh, its whole, it makes 97.” 

The Egyptians seem to have used heap 
for our * to denote an unknown quantity. 

The Greeks made progress in geometry, 
but .did not advance beyond other ancient 
people in algebra. The Arabs gathered 
up what was known, probably from India 
as well as the Mediterranean world. 
Through them the subject was introduced 
to the western world. About 1228 alge¬ 
bra attracted the attention of Italian schol¬ 
ars. It was in an elementary stage. The 
most learned had not thought of algebra 
beyond the simplest quadratic equations. 

The earliest printed algebra—in Latin, 
of course—appeared in 1494. It was pre¬ 


pared by an Italian friar, Lucas de Burgo. 
The earliest English algebra appeared at 
Cambridge. It was written by Thomas 
Recorde. He called his volume “The 
Whetstone of Wit.” The old textbooks 
seem elementary and crude. The signs 
+, —, X, -T-, =, are all modern. Expo¬ 
nents and the symbols for square root arc 
devices that have been adopted later. 

It was then the practice among the culti¬ 
vators of algebra, when they advanced a step, 
to conceal it carefully from their contemporaries, 
and to challenge them to resolve arithmetical 
questions, so framed as to require for their 
solution a knowledge of their own new-found 
rules. In this spirit did Ferreus make a secret 
of his discovery : he communicated it, however, 
to a favorite scholar, a Venetian named Florido. 
About the year 1535, this person, having taken 
up his residence at Venice, challenged Tartalea 
of Brescia, a man of great ingenuity, to a trial 
of skill in the resolution of problems by alge¬ 
bra. Florido framed his questions so as to re¬ 
quire for their solution a knowledge of the 
rule which he had learned from his preceptor 
Ferreus; but Tartalea had, five years before 
this time, advanced further than Ferreus, and 
was more than a match for Florido. He there¬ 
fore accepted the challenge, and a day was ap¬ 
pointed when each was to propose to the other 
thirty questions. Before this time came, Tar¬ 
talea had resumed the study of cubic equations, 
and had discovered the solution of two cases 
in addition to two which he knew before. Flori- 
do’s questions were such as could be resolved 
by the single rule of Ferreus; while, on the 
contrary, those of Tartalea could only be re¬ 
solved by one or other of three rules, which 
he himself had found, but which could not be 
resolved by the remaining rule, which was also 
that known to Florido. The issue of the con¬ 
test is easily anticipated; Tartalea resolved all 
his adversary’s questions in two hours, without 
receiving one answer from him in return.— Bri¬ 
tannic a. 

I was just going to say, when I was in¬ 
terrupted, that one of the many ways of clas¬ 
sifying minds is under the heads of arithmetic¬ 
al and algebraical intellects. All economical and 
practical wisdom is an extension or variation of 
the following arithmetical formula: 2 2 = 4. 

Every philosophical proposition has the more 
general character of the expression a T b~ c. 
We are mere operatives, empirics, and egotists, 
until we learn to think in letters instead of fig¬ 
ures.—Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. 

Algeria, a district of North Africa. It 
extends along the Mediterranean from Tu¬ 
nis to Morocco, a distance of 620 miles. 
The southern boundary is indefinite, but 
is about 250 miles from the sea, far enough 
to include the mountain ranges and any 







ALGERIA 


foothills or oases on the south worth the 
having. A fertile strip from 50 to 150 
miles wide, extending east and west near 
the coast, is called the Tell. South of 
this is rough, elevated land, devoted to 
raising sheep and goats, and the gather¬ 
ing of esparto grass much used in paper 
making. The Tell, which is intersected 
by fine wagon roads and 2,000 miles of 
railway, has the aspect of a well cultivated 
country of southern Europe. Fields of 
grain and tobacco, vineyards, orchards, 
lemon and orange groves, and olive trees 
indicate a fertile and prosperous country. 
Half of the world’s cork and quantities of 
dates come from the Atlas hills and along 
the rivers of the Tell. A score or two of 
mines yield ores of iron, copper, silver, 
lead, and zinc. The quarries supply build¬ 
ing stone and phosphate. 

Since 1830 Algeria has been a possession 
of France. Of 5,000,000 inhabitants, 
chiefly Arab and Berber, about 300,000 
are French. They dominate the industries 
of the country, though the Berbers who 
antedate Frenchman and Arab do most of 
the work. Farm help costs from twenty 
to forty cents a day. The country sells 
$60,000,000 worth of goat skins, ore, cork, 
wine, tobacco, grass for paper, and grain 
a year. Trade is carried on chiefly with 
Marseilles. 

Algiers, the capital, has streets, public 
buildings, shops, and hotels, modeled on 
those of French cities. Ancient Algiers 
lies farther back, along narrow, dirty, up¬ 
per streets. The milkman drives his flock 
of goats from door to door. The houses 
have thick walls designed to exclude heat. 
The flat roofs command a magnificent view 
of a fine harbor and its shipping. The har¬ 
bor is protected by a long mole of immense 
concrete blocks, dropped in a curved line 
to form a defensive embankment. 

Algeria is in all essential respects a de¬ 
partment of the French republic. There 
are public schools, both Arabic and French. 
Freedom of religious worship is secured 
to all. Newspapers, mails, telegraph and 
telephone lines disseminate information. 
Political rights are guaranteed by the privi¬ 
lege of sending three senators and six rep¬ 


resentatives to the National Assembly of 
France. 

In Roman times Algeria was noted for 
its fertility. It was called “The Garden 
of the Empire.” Then for centuries, un¬ 
til the French took hold of it, Algeria lay 
desolate. Considered from a sentimental 
point of view, it is not right for a strong 
nation to take possession of the territory 
of its weak neighbors. But experience has 
shown that a weak country is better off as 
the possession of some nation able to en¬ 
force the law; at certain stages of prog¬ 
ress government is more important than 
development. 

Statistics. The following statistics are • 
the latest to be had from trustworthy 


sources: 

Land area, square miles. 222,180 

Forest area, acres . 6,560,232 

Population (1921) . 5,712,523 

Native . 4,929,335 

European . 738,188 

Chief Cities: 

Algiers . 206,595 

Oran . 141,156 

Constantine . 78,220 

Bone . 45,171 

Colonial revenue .$80,000,000 

Farm area, acres .124,976,000 

Wheat, bushels . 41,480,000 

Corn, bushels . 358,000 

Oats, bushels . 11,412,000 

Barley, bushels . 50,491,000 

Potatoes, bushels . 653,000 

Cork, tons . 634 

Tobacco, pounds . 24,650,000 

Domestic Animals: 

Horses . 202,839 

Mules . 184,895 

Asses . 247,808 

Cattle . 1,092,996 

Sheep . 9,139,722 

Goats .:. 3,793,998 

Swine . 108,213 

Imports .$385,000,000 

Exports .$275,000,000 

Iron ore mined, tons . 1,071,278 

Zinc, tons . 26,422 

Lead, tons . 11,633 

Coal, tons . 6,871 

Lignite, tons ., 1,754 

Phosphates, tons . 456,169 

Wine, gallons .157,136,452 

Miles of railway . 2,221 

Number of schools . 1,305 

Pupils enrolled . 146,508 


See Berbers; Esparto; France; 
Africa. 

During the Napoleonic wars, the Dey of Al¬ 
giers supplied grain for the use of the French 










































ALGONQUIN—ALHAMBRA 


armies; it was bought by merchants of Mar¬ 
seilles, and there was a dispute about the mat¬ 
ter which was settled as late as 1829. Several 
installments had been paid; the dey demanded 
payment in full according to his own figures, 
while the French government, believing the 
demand excessive, required an investigation. In 
one of the numerous debates on the subject, 
Hussein Pasha, the reigning dey, became very 
angry, struck the consul with a fan, and or¬ 
dered him out of the house. He refused all 
reparation for the insult, even on the formal 
demand of the French government, and conse¬ 
quently there was no alternative but war. The 
expedition launched from the port of Toulon 
for the chastisement of the insolent Algerine 
comprised 37,500 men, 3,000 horses, and 180 
pieces of artillery. .•. . The sea forces included 
eleven ships of the line, twenty-three frigates, 
seventy smaller vessels, 377 transports, and 230 
boats for landing troops. ... It was finally 
agreed that the dey should surrender Algiers 
with all its forts and military stores, and be 
permitted to retire wherever he chose with his 
wives, children, and personal belongings, but 
he was not to remain in the country under any 
circumstances. On the fifth of July the French 
entered Algiers in great pomp and took posses¬ 
sion of the city. . . . The spoils of war were 
such as rarely fall to the lot of a conquering 
army, when its numbers and the circumstances 
of the campaign are considered. In the treasu¬ 
ry was found a large room filled with gold and 
silver coins heaped together indiscriminately, 
the fruits of three centuries of piracy; they 
were the coins of all the nations that had suf¬ 
fered from the depredations of the Algerines, 
and the variety in the dates showed very clearly 
that the accumulation had been the work of two 
or three hundred years. How much money was 
contained in this vast pile is not known; cer¬ 
tain it is that nearly 50,000,000 francs, or 2,000,- 
000 pounds sterling, actually reached the French 
treasury. . . . The cost of the war was much 
more than covered by the captured property. 

. . . Many slaves were liberated. . . . The Al¬ 
gerine power was forever broken, and from that 
day Algeria has been a prosperous colony of 
France.—T. W. Knox, Decisive Battles Since 
Waterloo. 

Algonquin, al-gon'kwTn, an important 
and widely spread family of North Ameri¬ 
can Indian tribes. At the time of the dis¬ 
covery of America the Algonquin Indians 
extended from Labrador to what is now 
Mason and Dixon’s line, and westward, 
somewhat irregularly, as far as the Rocky 
Mountains. A further account may be 
found under the headings of the various 
tribes, as the Delaware, Chippewa, and 
Blackfeet Indians. Powhatan, Philip, 
Tecumseh, Pontiac, and Black Hawk were 


Algonquins. About 35,000 Algonquins 
are left in the United States, and about 
60,000 in Canada. See Indians. 

Alham'bra, the ancient palace and for¬ 
tress of the Moorish kings of Granada. 
The name, meaning the red, is derived 
from the red, sun dried bricks used in the 
construction of the outer walls. The Al¬ 
hambra is situated on elevated ground over¬ 
looking the city of Granada, Spain, and 
commands a magnificent view of moun¬ 
tains, rolling hills, and valleys. It was 
constructed by the Moors about one hun¬ 
dred and fifty years before the discovery of 
America. It was taken from the Moors 
by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. A 
massive outer wall pierced by gateways 
and flanked by thirteen towers incloses an 
area of thirty-five acres. Although fallen 
into neglect, the gardens are still described 
as well wooded, and as intersected by 
shady walks, revealing charming water¬ 
falls and cooling fountains. Singing birds 
and sweet scented flowers add to the de¬ 
light of the traveler. A number of gov¬ 
ernment buildings were contained in this 
area, the chief of which was the Royal 
Palace. The name Alhambra is applied 
properly to the entire fortress. The palace 
of the Alhambra was called by the Moors, 
Alcazar. This palace consisted of numer¬ 
ous halls and buildings arranged chiefly 
about two rectangular courts. 

The Court of the Fish Pond is about 
one hundred and forty feet long by sev¬ 
enty-four broad. It receives its name from 
a pond in the center full of gold fish. The 
doorways, windows, rows of pillars, light 
arches, and colonnades about this court 
have the lightness and grace of palm trees. 
It is hardly proper to describe their beauty 
in the present tense, for an earthquake in 
1821 and a fire in 1890 have left little 
of this court to admire. The Court of 
Lions, somewhat smaller, derives its name 
from a white alabaster fountain in the cen¬ 
ter, supported by twelve lions. When this 
fountain was in order a jet of water rose 
from its center, fell back into the basin 
and was discharged through the mouths 
of the twelve marble lions. The court is 
entirely surrounded by an arcade or low 
gallery resting on one hundred and twenty- 


ALI BABA—ALIEN 


four white marble columns. The floor is 
paved with colored tiles, and the walk be¬ 
neath the gallery with white marble. The 
arches, galleries, filigree walls, and the 
light domes of the roof are composed of 
open tiling, adorned with stucco work of 
wonderful lightness and grace. Arches and 
ceilings seem to hang like cobwebs or gauze 
in the shape of foliage and arabesques. 

Of the many halls that of the Ambas¬ 
sadors is perhaps the most imposing. It 
is thirty-seven feet square with an arched 
ceiling seventy-five feet in height. This 
was the grand reception room where the 
Moorish monarch sat enthroned on state 
occasions, such as the reception of foreign 
ambassadors. The walls are covered with 
delicate stucco work, the ceiling is inlaid 
with diversified work of white, blue, and 
gold, imitating stars set in the heavens. 
So wondrously is marble, brick, and stucco 
fashioned and put together, that, seen from 
the end of a vista, the combination of pil¬ 
lars, arches, windows, and walls has the 
appearance of lace curtains hung and 
looped in graceful fashion. Doorways, 
arches, domes, colonnades, fountains, fili¬ 
gree work, trellised windows, blue, brown, 
red, and gold colorings, sparkling foun¬ 
tains, soft couches, and the lightness and 
grace of it all, make the Alhambra a veri¬ 
table fairyland that stands unapproached 
in the history of architecture. It is a mag¬ 
ic group of palaces, possible only to the 
same order of minds that created the Ara¬ 
bian Nights’ Entertainments . Washington 
Irving’s Alhambra is considered an excel¬ 
lent account. 

Ali Baba, a'le ba'ba, the central char¬ 
acter in the famous Arabian tale of The 
Forty Thieves. He overhears the robbers’ 
password of “Open Sesame,” and uses it 
in their absence to enter their famous cave 
and despoil it of treasure. Having found 
who took their treasure, the robbers vowed 
vengeance, and had themselves conveyed 
in empty covered jars and set down in 
Ali Baba’s court; but his faithful slave, 
Morgiana, overheard their conversation 
and killed them, one and all, by pouring 
hot oil into the jars in which they were 
concealed. See Arabian Nights; Sesa¬ 
me. 


Alibi, al'i-bi, a Latin word meaning 
elsewhere. In law, to prove an alibi is to 
show that the accused was elsewhere when 
the crime was committed. An alibi is, 
of course, absolute proof of innocence. 
It must be confessed, however, that an 
alibi is established not infrequently by 
false testimony, with the purpose of clear¬ 
ing a criminal whose case is otherwise 
desperate. 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 

a popular story for children by Lewis 
Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson), a clergy¬ 
man of Oxford, England. The story was 
published in 1865. “What is the use of 
a book without pictures or conversations?” 
Alice asks, at the outset; and the book 
recounting her adventures is certainly 
full of delightful pictures and amazing 
conversations. It is a humorous tale of 
a little girl who follows a remarkable 
rabbit—with a watch in his waistcoat 
pocket—to a land where she soon “gets 
used to queer things happening.” Some¬ 
times rhymes are introduced in the “con¬ 
versations,” although the words do not 
always “come the same as they used to 
do,” 

How doth the little crocodile 
Improve his shining tail, 

And pour the waters of the Nile 
On every golden scale. 

See Dodgson. 

Alien, al'yen, one living in a country 
without becoming a citizen. A German, 
residing in New York without becoming 
a citizen, is an alien. An American, simi¬ 
larly residing in Berlin, is an alien. 
American tourists are aliens while abroad. 
The Prince of Wales, later King Edward, 
visited the Centennial Exhibition held at 
Philadelphia in 1876. While in this 
country, he was, in a way, an alien. 

The term is of Latin origin. Far from 
meriting the reproach suggested to many 
minds by the Alien and Sedition Acts of 
1798, alien means simply of or belonging 
to another country,—a foreigner, as dis¬ 
tinguished from a citizen. Parentage, 
not place of birth, decides citizenship. 
The children of parents residing or trav¬ 
eling abroad are citizens of the same coun¬ 
try as their parents. 


ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS 


Custom and treaties between civilized 
countries accord the privilege of residence, 
and of transacting business. The right 
of holding land is sometimes denied to 
aliens. Aliens of the white race have been 
encouraged not only to live in the United 
States, but to become citizens. Natural¬ 
ized citizens are accorded the same degree 
of protection as natives. Were a German 
who had become naturalized, that is to 
say, who had “taken out his papers,” to 
visit his fatherland, he would be entitled 
to the protection of the United States 
flag, quite as though he were the son of 
our president. In countries having com¬ 
pulsory military service, however, it is gen¬ 
erally understood that this protection is not 
extended to army duty which he may be 
compelled to give on returning to his na¬ 
tive land. In granting naturalization 
papers to the citizens of some countries, 
the United States expressly notes this ex¬ 
ception. The refusal of England to grant 
to British subjects the right to become citi¬ 
zens of the United States, and the fre¬ 
quency with which former citizens of Great 
Britain were forced from American ships to 
serve in thd British navy, was one of the 
causes of the War of 1812. 

In the United States naturalized citi¬ 
zens have all the duties of native citizens 
and all the privileges as well, save that 
one, not a native citizen, may not be presi¬ 
dent, or hold an office by virtue of which 
he would succeed to the office of chief 
executive on the death or disability of 
the president. 

In modern nations a citizen is a citi¬ 
zen wherever the flag of his country is 
the flag of the land. A citizen of Canada, 
for instance, is not an alien, but a citi¬ 
zen in any part of the British Empire or 
aboard a British ship anywhere on the 
high seas. He is an alien in Vermont, 
but not in London; an alien in Paris, but 
not in Australia. In modern states an 
alien is permitted freely to become a citi¬ 
zen. He is required usually to go be¬ 
fore a court to declare his intention of 
becoming a citizen. After a required 
term of residence, which in the United 
States is five years, he is then permitted 
to forswear all allegiance to foreign po¬ 


tentates and powers, particularly the sov- 
ereign of his native country, and to take 
oath that he will support and obey the 
government of his chosen country. The 
wife and minor children of one thus nat¬ 
uralized also become citizens. An unmar¬ 
ried woman also may become a citizen on 
her own account. A woman marrying an 
alien becomes an alien, even though she 
continue to reside in her own country. An 
alien woman marrying a citizen becomes 
a citizen. Children follow the state of the 
father. Children of an alien father and 
a native mother are aliens, even in the 
land of her birth. Nellie Grant, the 
daughter of U. S. Grant, who married an 
Englishman of title, became thereby an 
alien to her native country, and a citizen 
of the British Empire. Her children are 
aliens at the tomb of their distinguished 
grandfather. 

Total aliens in United States in 1920: 

Male . 2,138,237 

Female . 2,226,672 

Total . 4,364,909 

Aliens in New York City, 1920: 

Male . 330,184 

Female . 441,892 

Total .772,676 

Among the ancients citizenship was not 
lightly conferred. The cities of Greece were 
slow to admit aliens to citizenship. In her 
colonies and subject provinces, Rome be¬ 
stowed citizenship as a reward for loyalty, 
and marked service in the interests of the 
empire. The inequality of the alien and 
the citizen in the eye of the law are thus 
expressed by Portia in Shakespeare’s Mer¬ 
chant of Venice : 

Tarry, Jew, 

The law hath yet another hold on you. 

It is enacted in the laws of Venice, 

If it be proved against an alien 
That by direct or indirect attempts 
He seek the life of any citizen, 

The party ’gainst the which he doth contrive 
Shall seize one half his goods; the other half 
Comes to the privy coffer of the state; 

And the offender’s life lies in the mercy 
Of the duke only, ’gainst all other voice. 

See Immigration; Naturalization. 

Alien and Sedition Acts, in American 
history, a series of four acts passed bj 
Congress in 1798, during the presidency 
of John Adams. The relations be¬ 
tween France and the American govern- 


t 









ALIMENTARY CANAL 


ment were strained. America was full 
of French refugees who were drawing on 
the sympathies of the American people to 
help France in return for the assistance 
rendered us by that country during the 
American Revolution. The Republican 
party, led by Thomas Jefferson, encour¬ 
aged the French claims. The French 
Revolution had brought into the Directory 
of France a number of men lacking not 
only tact, but a delicate sense of honor. 
On one occasion the American envoys at 
Paris were actually told that they might 
secure an official hearing by paying for it. 
The Federalist party, then in power in 
this country, and carrying the actual re¬ 
sponsibility for the management of our 
foreign affairs, became very much incensed 
against the French. Four acts were passed 
in rapid succession: 

1. A new naturalization law requiring 
fourteen years’ residence instead of five, 
to become a citizen of the United States, 
and requiring all aliens, under penalty, to 
register on arrival in this country. 

2. The president was empowered for 
a term of two years to expel from the 
country any aliens whom he deemed dan¬ 
gerous, or engaged in conspiracy. This 
is known as the Alien Friends’ Act. Al¬ 
though the president never took advan¬ 
tage of his power, many troublesome 
Frenchmen left the country in alarm. 

3. The president was authorized, in 
time of war, to drive out all aliens. This 
is known as the Alien Enemies’ Act. 

4. It was made a crime to utter a libel 
against the president, the Congress, or the 
government. This was known as the Sedi¬ 
tion Act. This Act was aimed at indi¬ 
viduals and newspapers who were heaping 
abuse on the administration. It was en¬ 
forced in a number of cases. Mr. 
Matthew Lyon, a Republican member of 
Congress from Vermont, was condemned 
to pay a fine of $1,000 and was sentenced 
to four months’ imprisonment. The pro¬ 
prietor of the Vermont Gazette was also 
fined and imprisoned. 

Some writers speak of the first of the 
acts named above as a naturalization law, 
thus reducing the alien and sedition acts 
to three. The country was full of Euro¬ 


peans whose residence in this country was 
not of long duration. Although these acts 
were directed at the French, they gave 
offense to aliens and their friends of all 
nationalities. The Republicans, in their 
desire to obtain power, represented the 
Federalists in as bad a light as possible. 
John Adams, as is well known, failed of 
reelection. Jefferson and the Republican 
party came into power. 

The whole occurrence has found signifi¬ 
cance in that the legislatures of Kentucky 
and Virginia passed resolutions which de¬ 
nounced the alien and sedition laws, and 
called upon the legislatures of other states 
to unite in declaring these national acts 
void. Although no response was heard, 
the doctrine of nullification may be said to 
have then made its first official appear¬ 
ance. See Nullification. 

Alimen'tary Canal, the digestive tract. 
In the simplest form, as in the hydra, it 
is co-extensive with the body-cavity. In 
the higher animals the alimentary canal 
is separated from the body-cavity, and 
there are various enlargements, divisions, 
and valves in the way of pouches, crops, 
gizzards, stomachs, and intestines. The 
study of anatomy and physiology is much 
simplified if we bear in mind that all these 
are but modifications of the simple form. 
The alimentary canal or digestive tract 
is a tube extending through the body. In 
the simpler animals, as in the hydra, the 
process of digestion is carried on within 
the body-cavity, and there is no tract or 
tube especially set apart for this work. 
In the earthworm, however, the alimen¬ 
tary canal is separate from the body-cavity, 
and consists of a straight tube which is 
about the same diameter throughout the 
body. In the higher animals, as in birds 
and mammals, the tube is much twisted 
and doubled on itself, so that it is usually 
much longer than the entire body. In the 
higher animals, also, it varies in diameter, 
because of enlargements into pouches, 
crops, or stomachs. At certain points 
growths or organs of various sizes, called 
glands, are connected with it by means of 
small tubes called ducts. These glands 
produce and pour into the alimentary ca¬ 
nal fluids and juices which aid in diges- 


ALKALI—ALLEGORY 


tion. In man the alimentary canal con¬ 
sists of the mouth, the gullet, the stomach, 
the large and small intestine, and the rec¬ 
tum. Attached to one part of the intes¬ 
tine is the vermiform appendix, a small 
blind sac, which, when inflamed, is the 
cause of the disease called appendicitis. 
See Amoeba ; Camel • Bird ; Cud- 

CHEWERS. 

Alkali, al'ka-11, a compound resulting 
from the decomposition of water by any 
one of the alkali metals, as potassium, so¬ 
dium, or lithium. Ammonia has the char¬ 
acteristics of an alkali, and is known as 
the volatile alkali. The alkalies are all 
very soluble in water, forming soapy, 
caustic solutions. They unite with oils 
and fats to form soaps, neutralize acids 
forming alkaline salts, change some of the 
vegetable yellows to brown, and reddened 
litmus to blue. Common lye, obtained by 
leaching wood ashes, is an alkaline solu¬ 
tion consisting largely of potassium salts. 
It is used in a number of factories and by 
the housewife in making soft soap, and 
for hulling corn. The alkali waters of 
the Western States contain considerable 
quantities of alkali salts, chiefly in the 
form of carbonates or sulphates of potas¬ 
sium and sodium. Large areas of soil, 
both in the Old World and in the New, 
are so impregnated with alkali salts as to 
be practically barren; but recent experi¬ 
ments in irrigation have demonstrated that 
water and drainage will leach out the 
salts and convert deserts into fertile plains. 

Among the useful plants which subsist 
on certain proportions of alkali salts in 
the soil are barley, rice, millet, beets, rape, 
sunflower, celery, asparagus, spinach, onion, 
alfalfa, clover, and grape. To this list 
may be added the date palm of the Old 
World. Plants require variable small 
amounts of alkali salts. Water, however, 
containing ten per cent of alkali material 
is destructive to vegetation. 

So-called spent lye is the liquid 
which remains after the combination 
of the alkali and grease in the manu¬ 
facture of soap. It is of great value for 
plants. Before its application to the land 
it is mixed sometimes with peat or turf, 
or diluted with water. Besides containing 


potash or soda, this lye contains a large 
quantity of nitrogenous material.— Julius 
Hortvet. 

ATkaloids, a group of compounds per¬ 
haps best described as organic bases. In 
a narrower sense it is used for those of 
vegetable origin only, the similar ones 
found in animals being known as ptomaines 
or leucomaines. They are widely distrib¬ 
uted, are in the main bitter and poisonous, 
and have no common antidote. For the 
most part they are very active physiologi¬ 
cally, having a special affinity for the nerv¬ 
ous system, and should not be used as 
medicine except upon the advice of a phy¬ 
sician. Among the more common ones may 
be mentioned aconitine, atropine, cocaine, 
morphine, and strychnine. See Ptomaine. 

Alkoran. See Koran. 

Allan-a-Dale, a young minstrel in the 
old English ballads. About to be married, 
his bride is taken from him by her father, 
and promised to a rich old knight. Allan 
joins Robin Hood’s band. With the aid 
of the outlaw and his bowmen, the maid 
is rescued at the altar, and the young cou¬ 
ple are married. In Scott’s Ivanlioe, Al¬ 
lan-a-Dale appears in the character of 
Locksley’s minstrel. Scott has written a 
poem, also entitled Allan-a-Dale. 

Allan-a-Dale lias no fagot for burning, 
Allan-a-Dale has no furrow for turning, 
Allan-a-Dale has no fleece for the spinning, 

Yet Allan-a-Dale has red gold for the winning. 
Come, read me my riddle! come, hearken my 
tale, 

And tell me the craft of bold Allan-a-Dale. 

See Ivanhoe; Robin Hood. 

Alleghany Mountains. See Appa¬ 
lachians. 

Allegheny. See Pittsburgh. 

Al'legory, a fictitious narrative, convey¬ 
ing more or less clearly some meaning 
other than the literal. An allegory may 
be represented by painting or sculpture, 
but as the word is commonly used, it is 
a figure of rhetoric, where language is the 
medium of representation. The purpose of 
an allegory is to present some significant 
fact or moral truth in a forcible manner. 
An element in its effectiveness is the fact 
that the real meaning is hidden,—that the 
reader must fix his attention upon the ap¬ 
parent meaning until he has discovered foi 


ALLEN—ALLENBY 


himself the truth concealed therein. The 
fable and the parable are modified forms 
of the allegory, usually short and convey¬ 
ing one definite moral. Literature of all 
nations and of all ages abounds in in¬ 
stances of allegory. 

In the eightieth Psalm, the history of 
Israel is told in a beautiful allegory of a 
vine “brought out of Egypt.” Spencer’s 
Faerie Queene, Swift’s Tale of a Tub, 
Gulliver's Travels, and Bunyan’s Pil¬ 
grim's Progress are well known examples 
of the allegory. One of the finest al¬ 
legories in literature is the cycle of poems 
called Idylls of the King by Alfred Ten¬ 
nyson. In this the literal meaning pre¬ 
sents a story beautiful, ennobling, satis¬ 
fying, but the thoughtful reader finds in 
each poem some great truth hidden, while 
the whole presents, it is believed, Ten¬ 
nyson’s conception of the life of man, his 
struggle between good and evil, his rela¬ 
tion to his fellow 7 man, and his relation 
to God. 

Allen, Ethan (1737-1789), an Ameri¬ 
can patriot. He was born at Litchfield, 
Connecticut, January 10, 1737. In 1769 
he removed to Vermont, where he became 
the leader of the Green Mountain Boys. 
May 10, 1775, he led a force of eighty- 
three men, among whom was Benedict 
Arnold, against the British forces at Ti- 
conderoga, v r here, the story runs, he burst 
into the quarters of the astonished com¬ 
mander, summoning him to surrender in 
the name of the great Jehovah and the 
Continental Congress. This capture gave 
the Continental armies a valuable supply 
of artillery, muskets, and ammunition. In 
September of the same year Allen led an 
attack on Montreal, but was captured, sent 
to England, and treated, it is said, with 
cruelty. He was held as a prisoner until 
1788. New York claimed Vermont as a 
part of its territory. General Allen was 
foremost in stoutly maintaining its inde¬ 
pendence. New York at one time declared 
him an outlaw and offered a reward of 
$750 for his capture. He was an active, 
rash, great-hearted man. During his lat¬ 
er years he wrote several pamphlets, in¬ 
cluding a narrative of his captivity in 
England, * defense of the claims of Ver¬ 


mont, and his views on religious matters. 
He died of apoplexy near Burlington, 
Vermont, February 13, 1789. His re¬ 
mains rest beneath a handsome monument 
in Greenmount cemetery near that city. 

Allen, James Lane (1849- ), an 
American novelist, w T as born in Lexington, 
Kentucky. He received a private educa¬ 
tion, and later studied at the University of 
Transylvania. He soon began to write for 
the magazines, but did not confine himself 
exclusively to literary work until 1886, 
when he went to New York. Mr. Allen 
has shown a finished artistry, and his 
stories of the Kentucky “Blue Grass” re¬ 
gion are incomparable in bringing to the 
reader the charm of this part of the United 
States, as well as the customs—social and 
otherwise—of pioneer days in Kentucky. 
Mr. Allen is a social historian, and has 
done for Kentucky what George W. Cable 
has done for Louisiana, and Thomas Nel¬ 
son Page for Virginia. The scenes of his 
stories are almost invariably laid in Ken¬ 
tucky, and in days to come, his delineation 
of character and customs will be of much 
historical value. 

Mr. Lane published A Kentucky Car¬ 
dinal in 1895 and The Choir Invisible in 
1897. These books show the author at his 
best, for they are written in a wav that 
shows him to be possessed of a rare psy¬ 
chological insight, as well as the art of 
telling a story in a manner to absorb the 
reader’s attention. Like the Norwegian, 
Johan Bojer, it is the problems of the soul 
that most seem to concern him. Among 
other novels may be mentioned: Flute and 
Violin; The Blue Grass Region and Other 
Sketches; John Gray; Aftermath ; A Sum- 
mer in A ready; The Reign of Law; The 
Mettle of the Pasture; The Bride of the 
Mistletoe; The Doctor's Christmas Eve; 
The Heroine in Bronze; Kentucky Warb¬ 
lers, and Emblems of Fidelity . 

Allenby, Edmund Henry Hyndman 
Allenby, First Viscount (1861- ), a dis¬ 

tinguished British field marshal, since 1919 
High Commissioner of Egypt and the 
Sudan. Entering the army in 1882, he 
served in South Africa before,'during and 
after the South African War, rising to the 
rank of major-general as early as 1909, 




ALLENTOWN—ALLIGATOR 


and to that of inspector of cavalry in 1910. 
At the outbreak of the World War, Mar¬ 
shal Allenby went to France at the head 
of the British cavalry division. For his 
services during the retreat from Mons, and 
later at the advance upon Aisne and the 
first battle of Ypres, Marshal Allenby won 
the praise of the allied high command. 
Advanced to the command of the fifth 
army corps in 1915, he was later made 
chief of the third army, which he led for 
two years. In 1915, he was promoted 
general and given command of the forces 
in Palestine and Egypt. In successive en¬ 
gagements he drove the Turkish forces 
from one position after another, and took 
the city of Jerusalem in December, 1917. 
In the following year he pursued the Turks 
with vigor, and by midsummer all of Syria 
and Palestine were in the hands of the 
Allies. 

Marshal Allenby was decorated several 
times, and on the distribution of rewards 
for service in 1919 he was appointed field 
marshal, was raised to the peerage, and 
was awarded £50,000. Later in the same 
year he was made British High Commis¬ 
sioner in Egypt. 

Allentown. The county seat of Le¬ 
high Co., Pa., on the Lehigh River and 
Lehigh Canal, 36 miles northwest of Phila¬ 
delphia. It is the second city in the 
United States in the manufacture of silk 
and also one of the leading cities in the 
manufacture of furniture; other industries 
include steel and cement mills, shoe fac¬ 
tories, brick yards and machine shops. 
The city is served by the Lehigh Valley 
and other railroads and is the center of a 
number of trolley lines. The public build¬ 
ings include the courthouse, high school, 
hospital for the insane, prison and library. 
Population in 1920, 73,902. 

All Fools’ Day. See April. 

Alliance, Ohio, an important railroad 
center for many roads, situated on the 
Mahoning River, 56 miles southeast of 
Cleveland. It is in a rich grain growing 
region, is near an abundant supply of nat¬ 
ural gas, and is an important manufactur¬ 
ing city. Alliance, originally named Free¬ 
dom, was settled in 1838. The present 
name was adopted in 1851, and a city 


charter was secured in 1888. Alliance has 
many manufactories engaged in engraving 
and making account registers. There are 
also steel works and manufactories of agri¬ 
cultural implements. 

Alligator, a huge reptilian, closely al¬ 
lied to the crocodile. Alligators are at 
home in the rivers and lagoons of the 
Southern States from Texas to North 
Carolina. They have the general shape 
of lizards, but are more closely related to 
turtles and serpents. They attain a length 
of eight to sixteen feet—Old Mose, in 
'New York Zoological Park, is twelve feet, 
five inches long. Alligators have bony 
plates set in their leathery hides. Their 
legs are large and strong. Their jaws 
are armed with terrific teeth. 

The female alligator builds a low nest 
of soil and muck, two feet high and four 
feet in diameter, on some hot, swampy 
beach. She lays from twenty to one hun¬ 
dred eggs, all in a single night, and cov¬ 
ers them up in the nest with sand. The 
eggs are covered with hard shells, and are 
a little larger than those of a mallard 
duck. She then leaves her eggs to hatch 
in the heat of the sun, but she lingers 
about until her young appear. They are 
lively little fellows about eight inches 
long, weighing eight or nine to the pound. 
They make for the water at once. The 
young gain about a foot in length each 
year, or about twelve feet in ten years. 
As winter approaches, alligators bury 
themselves in mud banks to sleep. They 
do not freeze, but may be dug out in the 
winter without signs of life. A few hours 
in the sun, however, will bring them into 
activity. 

A smaller alligator, six feet in length, 
lives in the Yang-tse-Kiang of China. 
William T. Hornaday says of a specimen 
in his possession: “It so closely resem¬ 
bles our American species, that specific 
differences are difficult to point out.” The 
Chinese alligator is of a greenish-black 
color, dotted over with yellow spots. 

Alligators differ from true crocodiles in 
having cavities in the upper jaw for the 
reception of the long fourth teeth of the 
lower jaw. Their feet are not completely 
webbed, and they live much in marshes 


ALLITERATION—ALLOY 


and swamps. There are several alligator 
farms in Florida. Beautiful and expen¬ 
sive leather is made from the hides. 

See Crocodile; Gavial. 

Allison, William Boyd (1829-1908), 
an American statesman. He was bom at 
Perry, Ohio, the son of a farmer. Edu¬ 
cated at Allegheny College, University of 
Pennsylvania and Western Reserve Col¬ 
lege, Ohio, Mr. Allison practiced law in 
Ohio until 1857, when he removed to 
Dubuque, Iowa. He was a staunch Re¬ 
publican, and in 1863 was elected to 
Congress. He was re-elected five times, 
the last time in 1904. His length of ser¬ 
vice gave him a great influence. Mr. Alli¬ 
son served on several important committees, 
and almost every financial measure passed 
by Congress from 1863 to 1904 was at 
least partly his work. He was the joint 
author of the Bland-Allison bill, which 
provided for the purchase of silver bullion 
and for the coinage of a specified number 
of silver dollars each month. Mr. Allison 
was offered the secretaryship of the treas¬ 
ury by President Garfield and President 
Harrison. A short time before his death, 
Mr. Allison was renominated for a seventh 
term in Congress. 

Allit'eration, the repeated use of the 

same letter at the beginnings of two or 
more words or syllables in the same line 
or successive lines of poetry. It was a 
leading feature in the poetry of Beowulf 
and other Anglo-Saxon authors, and is 
still a source of harmony in modern verse. 
A stanza from Tennyson makes, this clear: 
The splendor falls on cajtle walls 

And jnowy summits old in jtory; 

The /ong /ight shakes across the /akes 

And the wi/d cataract /eaps in glory. 

B low, £ugle, Mow, set the wild echoes flying 
Z?low, £ugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

Children are fond of alliteration. “Goo- 
sie, goosie, gander,” “Bye, baby bunt¬ 
ing,” and “Peter Piper picked a peck of 
pickled peppers,” are specimens of juve¬ 
nile alliteration. Peter Poundtext, Wee 
Willie Winkie, Pied Piper, Tom Tucker, 
and Simple Simon are alliterative. 

See Figures of Speech. 

Allop'athy, a term originated by Hahne¬ 
mann, the founder of the homeopathic 
practice of medicine, and applied by him 


to the ordinary theory that remedies should 
be used whose effects are opposite to those 
produced by the disease. Hippocrates, 
the “Father of Medicine,” as early as 400 
B. C., used the expression, “opposites are 
the remedies of opposites.” The term 
allopathy is not used by its adherents 
themselves to any extent, as they prefer 
the designation “regular school.” See 
Hahnemann. 

Allotropy, a-lot'ro-pi, the property pos¬ 
sessed by certain chemical elements of 
existing in two or more forms with identi¬ 
cal composition but different properties. It 
has been thought to be due to a different 
number or arrangement of atoms in the 
molecule, as ozone, an allotropic form of 
oxygen, is known to contain three atoms 
in its molecule instead of two. Other ele¬ 
ments exhibiting this phenomenon are sul¬ 
phur, silicon, and carbon, the latter strik¬ 
ingly illustrating this peculiarity in the 
greatly differing forms, charcoal, graphite, 
and diamond. 

Alloway Kirk, a deserted church about 
two miles from Ayr. It is celebrated in 
Burns’ Tam O’Shanter, as the place where 
Auld Nick fiddled while the witches 
danced until disturbed by the “Weel done, 
Cuttysark,” of drunken Tam. It is a stone 
building, still standing, in much neglect, 
however, about half a mile from the birth¬ 
place of Burns. In the churchyard near¬ 
by people of various degrees lie buried. 
The poet’s father, mother, and sister lie 
here. The stone above the father’s grave 
bears the following lines written by the 
son: 

O ye whose cheek the tear of pity stains, 

Draw near with pious reverence and attend; 

Here lie the loving husband’s dear remains, 
The tender father and the generous friend,— 

The pitying heart that felt for human woe,— 
The dauntless breast that feared no human 
pride; 

The friend of man—to vice alone a foe; 

For e’en his failings leant to virtue’s side 

See Burns; Ayr. 

Alloy, a mixture of two or more met¬ 
als brought about by melting them to¬ 
gether. Copper is modified for special 
purposes by alloying it with other metals. 
The amount of other metals combined 
with copper in some of the common alloys 


ALL SAINTS’ DAY—ALMANAC 


may be stated as follows: Brass contains 
30 to 40 per cent of zinc; bronze, 4 to 10 
per cent of tin, 2 or more of zinc, and 
usually some lead; gun-metal, 9 per cent, 
and bell-metal, 25 per cent of tin; German 
silver, 20 to 40 per cent of zinc and 10 to 
20 per cent of nickel. Among alloys not 
containing copper, soft solder contains 50 
per cent each of tin and lead; pewter, 80 
per cent of tin and 20 per cent of lead; 
type metal, 70 per cent of lead, 20 per 
cent of antimony, and 10 per cent of tin. 
The nickel alloy used in coining contains 
75 per cent of copper and 25 per cent of 
nickel. Alloys in which mercury forms 
one of the components are known as amal¬ 
gams. Of the common metals, iron is 
the least miscible with mercury. The 
principal coins of the United States are al¬ 
loys of gold and silver with copper. In 
alloys of the noble metals, the degree of 
fineness is indicated by “carats.” Pure gold 
is 24 carats fine. Gold 22 carats fine, 
means 22 parts of gold to 2 parts of some 
other metal. American, French, and 
German coins are 21.6 carat, or 90 per 
cent gold. 

All Saints’ Day, the first day of No¬ 
vember. A feast day of the Roman church, 
celebrated in honor of all the saints. 
Called also Allhallows, and Hallowmas. 
See Hallowe’en. 

All Souls’ Day, the second day of 
November. It is observed as a feast day 
by the Roman church. On this day prayers 
are offered for the souls of all the faithful. 

Allspice, the dried berry of the pimen¬ 
to tree. It is also called Jamaica pepper. 
The pimento is a small tree of beautiful 
appearance. It grows wild throughout 
the West Indies, especially in Jamaica, 
where it is found up to a height of 4,000 
feet above the sea. It prefers a limestone 
soil. The name allspice comes from the 
notion that the berry combines the flavor 
of the clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. As 
the pimento berry loses its pungency when 
ripe, the berries are gathered unripe and 
dried carefully on floors, with frequent 
winnowing to prevent molding. When 
dry, the berries are sent to market in bags. 
Jamaica exports half a million dollars 
worth of pimento or allspice yearly. It 


is much used in cookery and to disguise 
the taste of medicines. 

All’s Well That Ends Well, one of 

Shakespeare’s comedies. It was first 
played in 1601. The plot was derived 
from a story in Painter’s Palace of Pleas¬ 
ure, taken in turn from the Decameron of 
Boccaccio. Shakespeare follows the origi¬ 
nal tale closely, although several comic 
characters are introduced which are his 
own creation. 

The heroine, Helena, whose “pangs of de¬ 
spised love” are expressed with touching tender¬ 
ness, ranks, despite her defiance of the dictates 
of maidenly modesty, with the greatest of 
Shakespeare’s female creations.—Sidney Lee. 

See Shakespeare. 

Allu'vium, a term applied to the 
sediment deposited by rivers over their 
flood plains when submerged at times of 
high water, to the deltas formed at their 
mouths, or to the fan-shaped heaps of de¬ 
tritus where a river emerges from a nar¬ 
row valley upon a plain at a lower level. 
This alluvial soil is the most fertile known, 
the productiveness of some river valleys, 
as the Nile, depending wholly upon the 
new material added after each flood time. 

Almanac, a table or calendar of days, 
giving, together with the day of the week 
and month, such information as the time 
of the rising and setting of the sun, the 
phases of the moon, holidays, fast and 
feast days, and days to be observed by 
church and state. Calendars of some sort, 
called fasti, were in vogue among the 
Romans, and were posted later in the 
forum for the information of the public. 
English almanacs, consisting of a square 
wooden stick about eight inches long, 
notched along the edges to represent the 
days and months of the year,—three 
months on each edge,—were used in Eng¬ 
land as late as Cromwell’s day. Each 
seventh day was notched deeply to repre¬ 
sent the Sabbath. The first day of each 
month was designated by a broad notch. 
Saints’ days and festivals were marked by 
colored figures, St. Valentine’s day by a 
true lover’s knot, etc. Manuscript alma¬ 
nacs of the twelfth century, one ascribed to 
Roger Bacon, are preserved in the British 
Museum and in the libraries of Oxford and 
Cambridge. Originally almanacs were in- 


ALMA-TADEMA—ALMOND 


tended for the guidance of the people in 
the performance of religious duties. From 
an early date they foretold eclipses and 
presaged weather, war, and pestilence, and 
w r ere filled with superstitions and broad 
jokes. 

In modern times a decided tendency to 
supply useful information and statistics 
may be noted. An almanac published by 
the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 
Knowledge set an excellent example in 
1828, which has been followed very gener¬ 
ally since. The Edinburgh, the British, and 
Whitaker’s Almanac are well known 
abroad. The Almanach de Gotha, 1764, 
printed in French and German, gives de¬ 
tails of the princely families of Europe, 
and various other details and statistics for 
each country in the world. A nautical 
almanac published two or three years in 
advance by the British government is in¬ 
valuable to the navigator who requires a 
knowledge of tides and the positions of 
stars at certain hours, from which to take 
his reckoning at sea. A similar publica¬ 
tion is issued by the United States bureau 
of navigation. 

The first American almanac was pub¬ 
lished by Wm. Pierce of Cambridge in 
1639. Poor Richard’s Almanac, pub¬ 
lished by Benjamin Franklin at Philadel¬ 
phia, is our most noted publication of the 
kind. Several prominent newspapers, as 
the New York World and the New York 
Tribu?ie, publish almanacs containing a 
large amount of current and attractive 
information. The almanacs published 
for free distribution by makers of patent 
medicines are characteristic of American 
business sagacity. One Lowell firm is said 
to distribute 25,000,000 copies yearly. 

See Calendar; Year. 

Alma-Tadema, al'ma tad'e-ma, Laur- 
enz (1836-1912), a Dutch painter, resident 
in England. He was born at Donryp, Fries¬ 
land. While at the Gymnasium of Leuwar- 
den where he received his education, he be¬ 
came interested in archeology, an interest 
manifested in his paintings, most of which 
represent ancient Greek, Roman or Egyp¬ 
tian scenes. In 1870 he married an English 
woman, Laura Epps, who was also an 
artist. Thereafter they made their home in 


London. Since that time Alma-Tad¬ 
ema has painted a very large number of 
pictures whose most noteworthy character¬ 
istics are realism, accuracy of detail, and 
beauty of coloring. Among them may be 
mentioned Tarquinius Superbus, Reading 
from Homer, Entrance to a Roman 
Theater, An Audience at Agrippa’s, and 
Antony and Cleopatra. This artist won 
many honors and medals, and was a member 
of the Royal Academies of Amsterdam, 
Munich, Berlin, London, Stockholm, Vien¬ 
na, and Madrid. Mrs. Alma-Tadema’s 
specialty is figure painting. 

Almond, a'mund, a tree and fruit of 
the rose family. The almond is closely 
related to the peach and apricot. The 
tree and flower are like those of the peach 
and apricot, but the outer portion of the 
fruit, corresponding to the pulp or eatable 
portion of the apricot, while fleshy before 
it ripens, later develops into a dry husk, 
sometimes as thin as paper, that splits and 
falls off in early autumn, leaving a soft 
shell instead of a hard one. Putting the 
case either way, the almond on sale cor¬ 
responds to a peach stone. We have no 
certain history of the almond save that it 
grew wild in the Barbary States and has 
been cultivated in southern Europe for cen¬ 
turies. 

In Germany and England the almond 
tree is planted for the sake of its beautiful 
flowers, which are a delicate pink, and 
which appear before the leaves in March 
or April. Almond trees also grow well 
in northern Africa and in various parts of 
Asia. In Russia a dwarf almond is com¬ 
mon on the southern plains. In Italy the 
almond blooms in February, converting 
the hillsides into a glory of pale-rose and 
green; for the peasants plant garden vege¬ 
tables under and between the almond 
trees, thus taking double toll of air and 
sun and soil. The seed of the almond 
ripens before the shell becomes hard and 
before the fleshy pulp becomes dry. In 
Italy, therefore, almonds are picked and 
eaten as early as May and June, although 
the nuts are not gathered for exportation 
until July and August, the time depending 
upon the season. Candied almond is sold 
as a confection in southern Europe. 


ALOE—ALPACA 


Of late California has raised almonds 
for shipment. In 1901 the census takers 
reported 1,601,947 almond trees. The 
shipment for the year was 218 carloads, 
or nearly 7,000,000 pounds. Almonds 
bloom so early, however, beginning early 
in February, that losses have occurred 
from frosts, and the almond industry in 
California has had a setback. Almonds 
are gathered much as hickory nuts are. 
If slightly stained, they are bleached with 
sulphur fumes to whiten the shells. If 
unsightly, they are shelled and put on the 
market as shelled almonds. A hard shelled 
almond, the so-called bitter almond, is 
cultivated for almond oil, which is pressed 
from the kernels. The flowering almond, 
a dwarf variety, is cultivated in dooryards 
as an ornamental shrub. 

See Nuts. 

AToe, a genus of lily-like plants in 
some respects resembling a century plant. 
Perhaps fifty different kinds have been 
described, most of them natives of the 
Cape Colony region. They are related to 
the daffodil and the narcissus. Aloes have 
a mass of long, fleshy, lanceolate, spiny 
leaves set on a short stem. They are much 
in demand for decorative purposes, espe¬ 
cially in public buildings. The natives of 
the west coast of Africa make cords and 
nets of the fibers of the leaves, and a spe¬ 
cies found in Jamaica furnishes the natives 
with material for clothing. The “Ameri¬ 
can aloe,” or century plant, is not an 
aloe, but an agave, which see. The aloes 
of the druggist, the juice of the aloe thick¬ 
ened by evaporation, is an old remedy 
known to the Greeks in the time of Christ. 
The juice of one aloe makes a beautiful 
violet dye. The juice of aloes was used 
formerly as a preservative in embalming. 
See Agave. 

Alpaca, al-pak'a, an Andean animal of 
the camel kind. The alpaca is smaller 
than the llama. It has been domesticated 
by the Peruvians. It is not used as a 
beast of burden. Large flocks are raised 
for the sake of the soft, silky, straight hair 
which grows to the length of two to eight 
inches, and is woven into fabrics of great 
beauty, giving its name to alpaca cloth. 
The body of the alpaca has somewhat the 


form of a sheep, but it has a long neck. 
It is also more active, and carries its head 
erect. Alpacas are no longer found wild. 
At shearing time they are driven into 
stone inclosures. Some of these shearing 
folds are believed to antedate the invasion 
of Pizarro. Since 1836 alpaca wool has 
been a regular article of export to Europe. 
Fleeces vary in color from white to black. 
Attempts to rear the alpaca outside of its 
mountain home in Peru have not proved 
successful. See Llama. 

Alpaca, a lustrous textile, made from 
the hair of the alpaca. The hair or fiber 
is fine and glossy, though less so than mo¬ 
hair. It ranges in color from yellowish 
brown to black. The characteristic which 
distinguishes it from most wool fiber is 
that it retains its luster after being dyed. 
Titus Salt, a worsted spinner in England, 
was the first to discover the possibilities of 
alpaca fiber. He found a few hundred 
pounds lying in a shed on the wharf at 
Liverpool, where it had been left by some 
importer who had failed to find a pur¬ 
chaser. Salt experimented with the fiber 
for some time before he produced a satis¬ 
factory fabric. His first alpaca factory 
was opened in 1854; eighteen years after 
he had decided that the fiber would prove 
available in spinning. This fiber or hair, 
which is from two to eight inches in length, 
is spun into yarn. With this yarn as a fill¬ 
ing, and a cotton warp, a durable, hand¬ 
some, and dust-defying material is pro¬ 
duced. Before spinning, the fiber is sorted 
into eight grades, each suitable for one 
class of goods. Most alpaca is woven plain, 
but it may be brocaded. After leaving the 
loom, it is washed, dyed, and pressed. 
Then it is “sheared” to remove any fuzz 
that may have been raised on the surface. 
After being washed, dried, and pressed 
again, it is ready for wrapping. Alpaca 
varies in quality, its beauty and durability 
depending upon the fineness or coarseness 
of the cotton warp and alpaca fiber, and 
upon the number of theads per inch, the 
evenness of weave, and the luster. The 
better qualities are hardly to be distin¬ 
guished from pure mohair. The luster of 
genuine alpaca is permanent. A cheaper 
and less serviceable material resembling, 


ALPHA AND OMEGA—ALPINE PLANTS 


and often called, alpaca, is made from the 
fleece of some varieties of sheep. It is 
a common fashion of late to call all this 
class of goods mohair. A genuine alpaca 
garment possesses a gloss almost like silk, 
sheds dust as well as linen, may be washed 
without injury, and is easily and success¬ 
fully pressed. See Angora Wool. 

Alpha and Omega, the first and last 
letters of the Greek alphabet. The ex¬ 
pression signifies the beginning and the 
end—completeness. In Rev. i: 8, the Lord 
saith, “I am Alpha and Omega.” The 
early Christians were wont to place these 
two letters on their tombs. 

Alphabet, al'fa-bet, the letters of a 
language arranged in a fixed order. Prior 
to the invention of characters to represent 
sounds, pictures were used to convey ideas. 
Such systems are still in use. The present 
writer has seen a representation of this 
sort on the body of a pine tree at Lake Itas¬ 
ca, stating in a pictorial way that a certain 
number of Chippewa hunters, with so many 
tents and guns, had encamped on the spot, 
and that they had killed a certain number 
of moose, deer, and small game. 

The pictorial writing of Egypt gave rise, 
it is thought, to the earliest alphabet of 
which we have any record,—that of the 
Phoenicians. The Greek, the Latin, the 
Arabic, and, so far as we know, all east¬ 
ern alphabets are derived from it. The 
word alphabet is derived from the Greek 
names for the first two letters, alpha and 
beta. In shape the various letters have 
undergone changes. The printed alpha¬ 
bets of different nations vary less than their 
script. That which we use is called the 
Roman alphabet. Its letters have the sim¬ 
plest shape of any, and are therefore the 
easiest to read. Early English was printed 
in an alphabet more nearly resembling that 
still in use by the Germans. If present in¬ 
dications are a guide, it is safe to assume 
that the Roman alphabet, with possibly 
further modifications, will one day become 
universal. It is used already for nine- 
tenths of the printed matter now issuing 
from the press. It is used in both Ameri¬ 
cas, in England, and her colonies, includ¬ 
ing India and Australia, and in the so- 
called Latin countries of the Mediterra¬ 


nean. In Scandinavia and especially in 
Germany, scientific books are printed in 
Roman letters. 

An ideal alphabet has a separate letter, 
and one only, for each sound, but no such 
alphabet is in general use. The Phoenician 
alphabet contains twenty-two letters; 
Greek, twenty-four; modern Russian, thir¬ 
ty-five; Arab, twenty-eight; Sanscrit, for¬ 
ty-seven. Our alphabet has twenty-six 
characters to represent about forty-two 
sounds. We supply the deficiency in a 
clumsy way by diacritical marks. In that 
way the first letter, a, is made to represent 
no less than eight sounds. The result is 
that there are a dozen possible ways of 
spelling the syllable new. 

See Runes; Hieroglyphics. 

Alpheus, al-fe'us, the ancient name of 
the river Rouphia, or Rufia. It is the prin¬ 
cipal river of the Peloponnesus, Greece, 
and empties into the Ionian Sea. A part 
of its course lies underground and the riv¬ 
er was fabled to flow under the sea to 
Sicily. 

In Greek mythology Alpheus was the 
river-god, and fell in love with a nymph, 
Arethusa. Pursued by her lover, Arethusa 
changed herself into a fountain on an is¬ 
land in the harbor of Syracuse, where Al¬ 
pheus, as a river flowing underground, over¬ 
took her, and they flowed united to the 
sea. We find allusions to this story in the 
poems of Milton, Hood, Coleridge, and 
many others. The following quotation 
from Moore alludes to the pretty Greek 
custom of throwing wreaths of flowers in¬ 
to the river at the point where it runs be¬ 
low the surface, to be brought forth again 
where the waters reappear: 

Oh, my beloved, how divinely sweet 
Is the pure joy when kindred spirits meet! 

Like him the river-god, whose waters flow, 

With love their only light, through caves below, 
Wafting in triumph all the flowery braids 
And festal rings, with which Olympic maids 
Have decked his current, as an offering meet 
To lay at Arethusa’s shining feet. 

Think, when he meets at last his fountain bride, 
What perfect love must thrill the blended tide! 
Each lost in each, till mingling into one, 

Their lot the same for shadow or for sun, 

A type of true love, to the deep they run. 

Alpine Plants, a general name for 
plants of an arctic character. The plants 


ALPS 


A 

of Switzerland, from an elevation of 6,000 
feet upward, were called alpine by early 
botanists. Similar plants found on the up¬ 
per slopes of mountains, as on the Andes 
from 12,000 feet upward, in Lapland, 
southern Patagonia, and in arctic coun¬ 
tries generally, have the same character¬ 
istics and are often identical. They con¬ 
sist for the most part of mosses, flowering 
plants that develop in a few weeks, some 
of great brilliancy, dwarf willows two or 
three inches high, etc. The general term, 
“alpine,” has been extended to all plants 
of this sort. 

Alps, the central mountain mass of Eu¬ 
rope. The Alps are a mass of mountains, 
rather than a chain. Their limits, count¬ 
ing spurs and valleys, are hard to define. 
There are two general divisions—the Swiss 
Alps and the Tyrolese Alps. The latter 
occupy that portion of Austria known as 
the Tyrol. Geologically the Alps occupy 
Switzerland and the Tyrol, as well as por¬ 
tions of Germany, Austria, Italy, and 
France. There are over three hundred 
peaks, having a height of from 5,000 to 
16,000 feet. St. Gothard is considered 
the geological center of the system. Mt. 
Blanc, 15,781 feet, is the highest peak. 

Owing to its accessibility, no other sys¬ 
tem of mountains has been studied so 
thoroughly as that of the Alps. The ef¬ 
fect of altitude on animal life and vege¬ 
tation, barometric pressure, the precipita¬ 
tion of snow and rain by the influence of 
cool summits on moisture-laden air, the 
flow of glaciers, the effect of mountains on 
the freedom-loving spirit of their inhabi¬ 
tants, the building of rack and pinion rail¬ 
ways, railway tunnels, the effect of heights 
on breathing, and on the temperature req¬ 
uisite for boiling water, are only a few 
of the problems that have been studied in 
the Alps. No other mountains of equal 
height and extent are penetrated by so 
many valleys and gaps, allowing not only 
the passage of men, plants, and animals 
in their migrations, but the passage of 
winds as well. The Alps shelter no desert 
region cut off from rain. Geologically the 
Alps have been described as a kernel of 
granite and gneiss wrapped in a covering 
of limestone. 


A very interesting summary of climatic 
conditions may be made by a division of 
the Alps into six regions, largely according 
to elevation: 

1. The olive region. The olive, lemon, 
and evergreen oak flourish in protected val¬ 
leys at the southern foot of the mountains 
and about the Italian lakes. 

2. The vine region. Grapes are pro¬ 
duced in deep sunny valleys throughout. 

3. The region of .deciduous trees. The 
lower slopes of the mountains are every¬ 
where covered with a growth of trees, up 
to a height of from 4,000 to 5,500 feet 
above the sea according to exposure. The 
more heat, the higher these forests. The 
roads and footpaths wind delightfully 
through groves of oak, ash, elm, beech, 
hazel, walnut, and sycamore. 

4. The region of coniferous trees. 
Above the beech line the mountain high¬ 
ways and paths begin to climb more rap¬ 
idly through spruce, pine, and fir forests. 
Lofty fir trees rise from the mountain sides 
and spring from heaps of boulders with 
apparently no footing beyond the loose 
rocks which they clutch with their roots, 
like the talons of an eagle. The roadside 
inns, farmhouses, and mountain chalets, 
constructed of hewed fir, turn to a rich 
brown, harmonizing wonderfully with the 
scenery. 

5. The region of pasture. From 6,000 
to 7,000 feet above the sea-level the firs 
come to an end, and the grassy pastures 
for which alpine regions are noted begin. 
Cattle and goats are driven up to the pas¬ 
tures in the summer season and down into 
the shelter of the valleys and forests for 
winter. The celebrated Swiss dairy cow is 
from this region. 

6. The region of perpetual snow. 
Above the pastures comes the snow line 
from 8,000 to 9,500 feet above the sea. 
Heavy snows fall even in midsummer, and 
are packed into glaciers that run down 
through the pasturage belt, often far into 
the forest below. 

The profusion and ever-changing variety 
of flowers to be found in the valleys as 
they rise higher and higher have long made 
the Alps a botanist’s paradise. The grassy 
heights below the snow line are noticeable 


ALSACE-LORRAINE 


for bright flowers found only in similar 
localities in the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, 
or on distant Ararat. This alpine flora, as 
it is called, includes rare species of the 
pink, saxifrage, cress, hawkweed, thyme, 
harebell, primula, violet, and gentian. 
Many of these, and especially an everlast¬ 
ing known as the edelweiss, grow beyond 
the range of grass or shrubs, wherever a 
bit of soil shows among the snow banks. 

The valleys of the Alps contain many 
snow-fed lakes of marvelous clearness. 
They are well stocked with fish, especially 
those of the trout and salmon kind that 
prefer cool water. The Alps have been 
the last refuge of many wild animals. The 
ancient urus, or wild bull of the Canton 
of Uri, has disappeared within historic 
times. The elk, the wild boar, and the 
beaver have gone too; but the brown bear 
of Berne, the wolf, the lynx, and the wild¬ 
cat still survive. Deer,—red, fallow, and 
roe,—still roam the forest regions, the shy 
chamois still climbs the rocks, and the 
ibex, wilder still, with curved horns haunts 
the very snow line. A marmot allied to the 
woodchuck thrives in the stony pastures. 

Birds find the Alps a place of shelter 
for their summer nests. In the forests 
and uplands are found several species of 
grouse, including the cock of the woods, 
ptarmigan, blackcock, and rock partridge.. 
The rock chough, a crow-like bird with a 
yellow bill and legs, builds on glacial 
cliffs 10,000 feet above the sea. The snow 
bird and the snow finch ascend still higher. 
The lammergeier or lamb-stealer, the al¬ 
pine eagle, still circles the mountains with 
long sweep of wing. 

Animal life extends higher than plant 
life. Animals are found at some distance 
above the line of plants. Beetles and simi¬ 
lar species shelter under stones. Natural¬ 
ists have observed that, while alpine flow¬ 
ers are brilliant, the insects lose color, and 
many species have been so long afraid to 
trust themselves in the gusty air, lest they 
be swept away from their homes, that they 
have lost their wings altogether. Highest 
of all are snow fleas. Even spiders are 
found on rocks 14,000 feet above the sea. 
Curiously enough, an alpine frog climbs 
as high as grass grows, and a toad follows 


closely after. While there is much simi¬ 
larity between the flora and fauna of the 
higher Alps and those of arctic regions, 
the climate of the Alps is much more fa¬ 
vorable. Day and night, summer and win¬ 
ter, follow in regular succession. In mid¬ 
summer the alpine day is hot even on an 
ice sheet. The sun of a midwinter day 
mitigates the severity of the weather. At 
night life may seek shelter; but within 
the Arctic Circle a long, bitter, cold win¬ 
ter night lasts for months without a ray 
of light or heat. 

Alsace-Lorraine, al'sas-lor-ran', really 
two provinces differing widely in history, 
language, and customs, but whose affection 
and attachment for France are the same; 
we should say Alsace and Lorraine. The 
hyphen served Germany as a short adminis¬ 
trative expression to denote territory stolen 
from France nearly fifty years ago, but 
ordered by the Peace Confeience to be re¬ 
turned immediately. In 1921 the prov¬ 
inces had an area of 5,604 square miles. 
The population was 1,593,549. The land 
is fertile, rich in iron and coal. Beautiful 
forests cover a third of it. Wine, grapes, 
oats, barley, rve, tobacco, wheat, and veg¬ 
etables are abundant; also dairy products. 
Manufactured articles °re quite as varied. 

The largest cities are strasburg, Metz, 
Colmar, and Mulhouse. Strasburg has a 
beautiful cathedral, a wonderful clock, and 
a great university. In Strasburg the Mar¬ 
seillaise was sung for the first time. 

Alsace-Lorraine is situated on the west 
bank of the Rhine. Germany desired it to 
strengthen her fortifications, and, desiring 
it, took possession by force during the 
Franco-Prussian War of 1871. She pre¬ 
tended an historic right to it dating from 
the Middle Ages when the territory be¬ 
longed to Germany, but the people were 
never German in feeling or customs. They 
refused to be reconciled to Germany, and 
when given choice to leave their homes by 
October 1, 1871, or become German sub¬ 
jects, more than 50,000 preferred to go 
into exile. The joy of the inhabitants 
when the Great War restored them to 
France was unbounded. The two provinces 
are now three regular French departments 


ALSIKE—ALTITUDE 


Strasburg, Colmar and Metz; or Bas- 
Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle. 

AJsike. See Clover. 

Altai, al' ti, Mountains, a lofty 
mountain system in West Central Asia. 
The summits are rounded. Byeluka 
(11,000 feet) is the highest peak. Gold, 
silver, copper and iron abound, and in 
the Russian provinces traversed by the 
system mining is important. 

Altar, al'ter, among the ancients a 
structure upon which sacrifices were of¬ 
fered to the gods. As almost every re¬ 
ligious act was accompanied by sacrifice 
an altar was an indispensable part of wor¬ 
ship. The first altar of which any record 
is preserved is the one which Noah “budd¬ 
ed unto the Lord” after the flood. The 
earliest altars were doubtless simple heaps 
of stones, or sods; later they were often 
elaborate structures of various forms and 
sizes. In the temple of Jupiter at Babylon 
was an altar of massive gold. The altar of 
peace built in honor of the Emperor 
Augustus at Rome was of colossal size, and 
is regarded as one of the masterpieces in 
art of the Augustan age. Altars were 
erected commonly in the open air, that the 
steam of the sacrifice might ascend to 
heaven. Within the temple altars were 
built also, and upon them incense was 
burned and bloodless sacrifices offered. 
“Altar” is used figuratively to designate a 
religion, nation, or anything for which a 
sacrifice is made. The following lines are 
from Joseph Hopkinson’s Hail Columbia . 

“Let independence be your boast. 

Ever mindful what it cost; 

Ever grateful for the prize, 

Let its altar reach the skies 1” 

Altgeld, John Peter (1847-1902)', an 
American political leader. He was a na¬ 
tive of VGermany, but was brought to the 
United States in infancy. He joined the 
Union Army at 16, and served until the 
close of the war. Mr. Altgeld was judge 
of the Superior Court of Chicago from 
1886 to 1891, and was elected Governor 
of Illinois in 1893, serving until 1897. 
One of his first official acts was the par¬ 
doning of three Anarchists, convicted of 
complicity in the Haymarket Riot of 1886. 
This act excited wide comment. He was 


“Let independence be your boast. 

Ever mindful what it cost; 

Ever grateful for the prize, 

Let its altar reach the skies!” 

Althea. See Meleager. 

Altitude, in geography the perpendicu¬ 
lar height of a locality above the sea-level. 
The greatest known altitude of any point 
on the earth’s surface is the summit of the 
Himalaya mountains. The top of Mount 
Everest rises 29,012 feet above the Indian 
Ocean. The greater part of the land sur¬ 
face lies below the line of 2,000 feet. High 
altitudes have much the same effect on 
climate as that produced by arctic con¬ 
ditions. The temperature falls three de¬ 
grees for each 1,000 feet of elevation. 
Even at the equator plant life ceases to 
exist at a height of 15,000 to 18,000 feet 
above the sea. The tops of the highest 
equatorial mountains have an arctic cli¬ 
mate without even the short arctic sum¬ 
mer. 

The highest inhabitated spots in the 
w’orld are: a mining district in Chile, 
18,480 feet above the level of the sea; 
a mining district in Peru, 16,200 feet, and 
a monastery in Tibet, 15,200 feet. The 
highest home of man in the United States 
is the Pike’s Peak observatory in Colorado, 
14,250 feet above sea-level. 

The following table of altitudes was 
prepared by a member of the United States 
Geological Survey, the data being taken 
from their maps, unless otherwise stated. 
The height is given in feet. Owing to 
varying conditions, high altitudes obtained 
by different parties may vary a few feet. 


Alabama, Che-aw-ha Mountain . 2,407 

Alaska, Mount McKinley .20,300 

Arizona, San Francisco Peak .12,611 

Arkansas, Magazine Mountain (?) . 2,800 

California/ Mount Whitney .14,501 

Colorado, Mount Elbert .14,436 

Connecticut, Bear Mountain . 2,355 

Delaware, 2 summits near Brandywine.... 440 
Dist. of Columbia, Fort Reno, Tenley .... 421 

Florida, near Mount Pleasant Station.... 301 

Georgia, Brasstown Bald Mountain . 4,768 

Idaho, Hyndman Peak .12,078 

Illinois, Charles Mound . 1,257 

Indiana, near summit, Randolph Co.1,285 

Iowa, 5 miles SE. of Sibley . 1,670 

Kansas, west boundary, north of Arkansas 

River . 4,135 

Kentucky, The Double, Harlan Co.4,100 















ALTON—ALUM 


Louisiana, summits in western parishes ... 400 

Maine, Mount Katahdin (west) . 5,268 

Maryland, Backbone Mountain . 3,400 

Massachusetts, Mount Greylock . 3,505 

Michigan, Porcupine Mountain (?) . 2,023 

Minnesota, Misquah Hills, Cook Co.2,230 

Mississippi, near Holly Springs. 602 

Missouri, Tom Sauk Mountain . 1,800 

Montana, Granite Peak .12,834 

Nebraska, Plains in SW. corner . 5,300 

Nevada, Wheeler Peak .13,058 

New Hampshire, Mount Washington . 6,290 

New Jersey, High Point . 1,809 

New Mexico, peak 2 miles N. of Truchas 

Peak .13,306 

New York, Mount Marcy . 5,344 

North Carolina, Mount Mitchell . 6,711 

North Dakota, south part Bowman County 3,500 

Ohio, 1 p 2 miles E. of Bellefontaine . 1,540 

Oklahoma, SW. corner T. 1 R. 1 . 4,700 

Oregon, Mount Hood .11,225 

Pennsylvania, Blue Knob . 3,136 

Rhode Island, Durfee Hill . 805 

South Carolina, Sassafras Mountain .3,548 

South Dakota, Harney Peak. 7,240 

Tennessee, Mount Guyot . 6,636 

Texas, El Capitan, Guadaloupe Mountain 8,690 

Utah, Mount Emmons .13,428 

Vermont, Mount Mansfield . 4,406 

Virginia, Mount Rogers . 5,719 

Washington, Mount Ranier .14,363 

West Virginia, Spruce Knob . 4,860 

Wisconsin, Rib Hill (?) . 1,940 

Wyoming, Mount Gannett .13,785 

HEIGHTS OF NOTED MOUNTAINS. 

Name Location Feet 

Aconcagua .Chile . 23,080 

Ararat.Turkey . 17,260 

Chimborazo .Ecuador . 20,498 

Dapsang .Tibet . 28,278 

Dickerman .Washington . 15,766 

Elburz .Russia . 18,526 

Everest .India. 29,002 

Kenia .East Africa .. 19,500 

Kilimanjaro .East Africa . 19,600 

Logan .Canada . 19,539 

Mauna Loa .Hawaiian Islands .. 13,600 

McKinley .Alaska . 20,464 

Mereedario .Mexico . 22,397 

Mitchell .North Carolina .... 6,711 

Mt. Blanc .France . 15,780 

Pike’s Peak .Colorado . 14,108 

Popocatepetl .Mexico . 17,748 

St. Elias .Canada . 18,024 

Shasta .California. 14,380 

Vesuvius .Italy . 4,260 

Washington .New Hampshire .... 6,279 

Whitney .California . 14,502 

Alton, Illinois, an industrial city on the 
Mississippi river, twenty-five miles north 
of St. Louis and three miles north of the 
junction of the Missouri and Mississippi 

rivers. It is a port of call for numerous 
lines of steamers and is served by the Chi¬ 


cago & Alton, Big Four, Chicago, Peoria 
& St. Louis, and other railroads, and by 
several interurban lines. Manufactories 
of glass and ammunition are the chief in¬ 
dustrial plants, though machinery, agri¬ 
cultural implements and tobacco products 
are also made. There is a good public 
school system, an Ursuline convent and a 
large library. Population, 1920, 24,682. 

Altoona. A city of Blair County, 
Pa., is op the Pennsylvania Railroad, 117 
miles east of Pittsburgh and 237 miles 
west by north of Philadelphia. The rail¬ 
road shops of the Pennsylvania Company, 
the largest in the world are here. The 
Company has co-operated with the public 
schools in establishing a splendid railroad 
high school, fully equipped with forge, 
foundry and woodworking machinery. 
There are more than fifty churches and 
two modern hospitals. There is also a 
mechanics’ library of 40,000 volumes, and 
a public library. 

Altoona is an important agricultural and 
coal-mining center. Population, 60,331. 

Alum, a substance which is essen¬ 
tially a double sulphate aluminum and 
some other element, especially an alkali 
metal, combined with 24 molecules of 
water. Ammonium takes the place of an 
alkali metal in forming one of the alums. 
The most important alums of commerce 
are potassium alum and ammonium alum. 
The crystals are large, white, and trans¬ 
parent, and are soluble in about ten 
parts of water, giving an acid reaction 
to the solution. When heated strongly, 
they lose their water of crystallization 
and form a substance known as “burnt 
alum.” 

Alum is used in tanning leather, in 
the preparation of size to be used in the 
manufacture of paper, and as the basis of 
the mordant or material used for making a 
permanent dye in the coloring of cloth. It 
is also one of the essential ingredients in 
many of the artificial yeasts, or so-called 
baking powders. The presence of notable 
quantities of alum or alum residue in bread 
is likely due to the use of an alum baking 
powder. Alum is sometimes added to the 
salt solution used to produce hardness and 
crispness in pickles. It has been occasion- 








































































ALUMINUM—AMADIS OF GAUL 


ally mentioned as a preservative, but its 
use for that purpose has not found a wide 
application. Alum is employed to some 
extent as a medicine. It is an antidote in 
acute cases of lead poisoning, and, on ac¬ 
count of its astringent action, it is applied 
to slight cuts to check the flow of blood. 
Very large doses produce symptoms of 
poisoning. The white of a raw egg is an 
effective antidote, as, in coagulating, it 
combines with the alum and permits of its 
removal from the stomach by the aid of an 
emetic. 

Aluminum, or Aluminium, a silvery 
white metal about as hard as zinc. It may 
be hammered into sheets and drawn into 
wires. It rings when struck, and is a good 
conductor of heat and electricity. It does 
not rust in the air, and is harder to melt 
than silver. Aluminum oxide, known also 
as alumina, is found in nature as corun¬ 
dum, of which the ruby, the sapphire, and 
emery are varieties. Alumina is one of the 
principal ingredients of clay. Aluminum 
gives its name to alum and enters into a 
vast number of minerals and soils. It is 
one of the lightest of metals, and would 
be used in preference to iron in buildings, 
were not its separation from clay so ex¬ 
pensive. Aluminum is used for the tips 
of lightning rods. The cap of the Wash¬ 
ington Monument, weighing 100 ounces, 
which is also the tip of its lightning rod, 
is formed of this metal. Of late alumi¬ 
num has displaced copper in part as a con¬ 
ductor through which to distribute electric¬ 
ity from power houses. Electricity gene¬ 
rated at Niagara is carried by aluminum 
cables to Buffalo. Thin sheets of alumi¬ 
num are used as a substitute for tinfoil. 
The metal is used also for hairpins, thim¬ 
bles, ferrules, bands for canes and um¬ 
brellas, mirror frames, combs, backs for 
brushes, and many other articles. Bobbins 
of this metal are not subject to shrinkage. 
They are lighter than w r ood. Aluminum 
was not isolated until 1828, and in 1886 
the production in the United States was 
only 1.5 tons. By 1911 this had increased 
to 23,062 tons, and in 1920 the production 
had a value of $41,375,000. It is pro¬ 
duced by electrolysis, and its chief ore is 
bauxite. In the form of alloys it is used 


in the construction of automobiles, bal¬ 
loons, and airplanes and for other purposes. 
Its use is being extended as rapidly as the 
metal can be supplied. See Corundum ; 

Alva, Duke of (1508-1582), a cele¬ 
brated Spanish soldier. An able, unscrupu¬ 
lous, cruel man, of whom an excellent ac¬ 
count may be found in Motley’s The Rise 
of the Dutch Republic. A distinguished 
general, during the reign of Emperor 
Charles V, he became the military com¬ 
mander-in-chief of Philip II. Upon being 
asked at one time to give an account of the 
money expended in the campaign, he is said 
to have replied: “If the king asks me for 
an account, I will make to him a statement 
of kingdoms preserved, or conquered, of 
signal victories, of successful sieges, and of 
sixty years’ service.” An account of his 
various campaigns would be a history of 
the reigns of two monarchs under whom 
he served. Alva is remembered particu¬ 
larly for the way in which he treated the 
inhabitants of the Netherlands. He was 
sent to the Low Countries with an army 
to subdue a revolt and to exterminate here¬ 
sy, out of which, it must in justice be said, 
the revolt proceeded. After a protracted 
contest Alva and his troops were with¬ 
drawn before the victorious forces of Wil¬ 
liam, Prince of Orange. This war cost 
Spain $800,000,000, her choicest troops, 
and seven fair provinces. Alva himself 
boasted that he had caused 18,000 Nether- 
landers to be beheaded for heretical opin¬ 
ions, though modern writers assert that 
many were executed for the sake of the 
wealth they were known to possess. 

Amadis of Gaul, an ancient Spanish or 
Portuguese romance, comparable with the 
British tales of Arthur and his Round Ta¬ 
ble Knights. It is thought to have 
taken form in the hands of a Portuguese 
writer, himself a knight, about a hundred 
years before the discovery of America. 

For the story itself, it is impossible to give 
a summary of it—the plot being too discon¬ 
nected ; but he who has read one such tale, or 
even a few chapters of one, may have a general 
impression of all—hacking and hewing in every 
page, knights always at war and seeking ad¬ 
ventures, giants in the path, lions in the forest, 
damsels in durance, castles to be attacked, wiz¬ 
ards and witches with hate in their hearts, kings 


AMALGAM—AMAZON 


everywhere plentiful as blackberries, and lovely 
ladies abounding in tenderness.—Southey. 

Amalgam, an alloy in which mercury 
forms an important constituent. Amal¬ 
gam is given the name of the material 
with which the mercury is combined, as 
gold amalgam, silver amalgam, etc. In 
addition to the materials just named, mer¬ 
cury combines readily with antimony, plati¬ 
num, arsenic, bismuth, lead, magnesium, 
potassium, sodium, tin, zinc, and several 
other elements of less note. The affinity 
of mercury for gold is put to a practical 
use by miners. Some account is given in 
the article on placer mining of the manner 
in which the gold-bearing gravel is washed 
through wooden flumes, in the bottom of 
which tiny puddles of mercury take up the 
particles of gold as they roll along, and 
form an amalgam. A silver and also a 
copper amalgam is used for filling teeth. 
An amalgam composed of one part of 
tin to three of mercury was formerly em¬ 
ployed for silvering the backs of mirrors; 
but it has been replaced of late by silver 
nitrate. See Mercury; Mirrors; Alloy. 

Amalthea, am-al-the'a, in Greek my¬ 
thology, the nurse of the infant Zeus, in 
Crete. According to one story Amalthea 
was a nymph and fed the child with goat’s 
milk. Another legend gives the name of 
Amalthea to the goat itself, and says she 
suckled the infant. Zeus broke off one of 
the horns of this goat and endowed it 
with the power of being filled with what¬ 
ever the possessor might wish. This horn 
was called the horn of plenty, or cornu¬ 
copia, and it was used in later times as a 
symbol of plenty. There is another story 
which connects the origin of the cornuco¬ 
pia with Achelous. See Achelous. 

Amaranth, a common name for several 
old-fashioned garden favorites, including 
cockscomb, prince’s feather, and love-lies- 
bleeding. The word is Greek, signifying 
everlasting or unfading. The color of the 
plumes is due to the scales that protect the 
apetalous, inconspicuous flowers. The 
scales retain their brilliant color in dry¬ 
ing; hence the amaranth is an emblem of 
immortality. There are some five hundred 
species, including our coarse pigweed and 
several tumble weeds. In southern Eu¬ 


rope, especially Portugal, the globe ama¬ 
ranth is used in place of holly and ivy for 
festal and church decorations. 

Immortal amaranth! a flower which once 
In paradise, fast by the tree of life 
Began to bloom; but soon for man’s offence 
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there 
grows 

And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life, 
And where the river of bliss through midst of 
heaven 

Rolls o’er Elysian flowers her amber stream: 
With these that never fade the spirits elect 
Bind their resplendent locks. 

—Milton, Paradise Lost . 

Amazon, a river of South America, the 
largest in the world. Its head waters are 
fed by the perpetual snows of the Andes, 
a few hundred miles from the Pacific 
Ocean. It flows in a general north- 
northeasterly direction, receiving enor¬ 
mous tributaries, and finally discharges its 
waters into the Atlantic under the equator 
in a mighty flood 150 miles wide. The 
Amazon is 4,000 miles long. It has a 
hundred navigable tributaries. Seventeen 
of the largest are from 1,000 to 2,300 miles 
in length. The entire Amazon system af¬ 
fords over 50,000 miles of navigable wa¬ 
terways. In the lower 750 miles of its 
course, from the mouth of the Rio Negro 
to the Atlantic, the main river is nowhere 
less than 180 feet in depth. Other rivers 
are longer, but of all rivers in the world 
none equals the Amazon in volume. Rough¬ 
ly stated the Amazon carries to the sea 
not each hour, but each minute, a volume 
of water represented by eighty acres fifty 
feet deep. Its basin, also the largest in 
the world, covers 1,900,000, some authori¬ 
ties say 2,500,000, square miles, or nearly 
a third of all South America. From the 
headwaters of the Amazon, the Indian in 
his canoe may pass north by connecting 
streams into the Orinoco or south to the 
Rio de la Plata. 

The entire central and eastern part of 
the Amazon Valley is occupied by dense 
forests. Surrounding the forest region 
toward the west, and lying between its 
tributaries, are vast savannas or treeless 
grassy tracts. The waters are thronged 
with turtles and crocodiles, water fowl, 
tapirs, and anacondas, and teem with fishes. 


AMAZONS—AMBER 


Agassiz described 1,163 species of the lat¬ 
ter. The forests, impassable jungles of trees 
and tropical vines, are inhabited by mon¬ 
keys, parrots, sloths, tapirs, boa constrict¬ 
ors, and pumas. Along the rivers Indians 
live in villages and barter with white tra¬ 
ders marketing dyewoods, rubber, and Bra¬ 
zil nuts. Para, near the mouth, is the chief 
port of the Amazon. Numerous steamers 
make regular trips between Para and up 
river landings. They bring down forest 
products, including lumber and dyewoods, 
and carry up groceries, tools, and clothing. 
The basin of the Amazon comprises the 
largest tract of fertile unimproved land in 
the world. Its only rival in this respect 
is the valley of the Congo. 

Amazons, a legendary nation of female 
warriors, reputed to live somewhere in 
Asia Minor. The men were left at home 
in a domestic capacity. The women cut 
off the right breast that it might not inter¬ 
fere with the use of the bow, and went to 
war. Under their queen, Penthesilea, they 
marched to the relief of Troy. The bat¬ 
tles of the Amazons were a favorite sub¬ 
ject with the Greek sculptor. It is not 
considered complimentary to call a woman 
an Amazon—too masculine. In pacifying 
their African possession of Dahomey, the 
French encountered really formidable 
forces of women warriors. They are spo¬ 
ken of as the Amazons of Dahomey. 

Ambassador, a diplomatic officer of 
highest rank. Of various agents that may 
be sent abroad by a government to look 
after its interests, consuls, envoys, and min¬ 
isters, the ambassador is the highest, and 
is supposed to be sent by a nation of high 
standing to another of equal rank. An 
ambassador is ranked as a personal repre¬ 
sentative of his sovereign. He is entitled 
to admission for a personal talk with the 
monarch of the court to which he is sent. 
Not to grant such an audience would be 
an affront to the sovereign of the ambas¬ 
sador. A mere minister is entitled to an 
audience from the secretary of state or 
prime minister. It is considered wise to 
clothe an ambassador with more authority 
than a minister or envoy. Like other dip¬ 
lomatic agents, the ambassador, his family, 
and entire retinue are granted special 


privileges in the capital of the country in 
which they reside. They are exempt from 
arrest. It is a question in international 
law whether a member of the ambassador’s 
official family may be arrested, even for 
murder. An offense is reported to the 
home government for proper correction. 
By an act of 1893 Congress authorized 
the president to appoint an ambassador to 
Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, France, 
Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Russia. Ja¬ 
pan, Turkey, Brazil, Spain and Argentina 
have been added. Governments receiving 
ambassadors from the United States also 
send ambassadors to Washington. Our 
ambassadors receive salaries of $17,500, 
but house rent and other expenses necessary 
to keep up appearances at a wealthy capi¬ 
tal far outrun the salary. The German 
Empire maintains ambassadors at Rome, 
Madrid, Washington, London, Paris, St. 
Petersburg, Vienna, and Constantinople, 
with salaries ranging from $25,000 to 
$37,000 each. See Diplomatic Service. 

Amber, a fossil resin. It is found in 
greatest abundance on the shores of the 
Baltic, where mines are worked to a depth 
of one hundred feet. Lumps of amber are 
found in a stratum of material, half wood 
and half coal. After storms the shores 
are searched for pieces which may have 
been cast up by the waves. Small speci¬ 
mens have been found in the sands of New 
Jersey and in the soft coal beds of west¬ 
ern America. Amber is of a pale yellow 
color, usually nearly transparent. It is- 
considered to be the resinous gum exuded 
by certain extinct pine trees. Several 
hundred different kinds of insects have 
been found inclosed in amber, as well as 
leaves and fragments of many plants. Am¬ 
ber is highly prized, particularly for the 
mouthpieces of pipes. Eastern Europe, 
Turkey, and Persia pay high prices for 
genuine amber. A fine specimen is worth 
its weight in coin. The Cabinet of Berlin 
has a mass of eighteen pounds, valued at 
$30,000. Recent explorers of the lakes 
of Switzerland have discovered pieces of 
amber in the ruins of the old lake dwell¬ 
ings, showing that commerce in amber is 
of ancient date. The Romans admired 
amber ornaments. They thought amber 


AMBERGRIS 


AMERICA 


beads a charm against poison and the bale¬ 
ful influence of sorcery and witchcraft. 
Frictional electricity was first noted in con¬ 
nection with amber. See Kauri. 

Ambergris, am'ber-gres, an ash col¬ 
ored, inflammable sort of wax. The name 
signifies gray amber. It is found in lumps 
of from an ounce to 200 pounds in weight, 
floating on the sea, especially in the vicin¬ 
ity of the Bahama Islands or other locali¬ 
ties frequented by sperm whales. It is 
also obtained from the intestines of the 
sperm whale. See Whale. 

Ambrose, Saint (about 340-397), an 
early Father of the Church, and a writer 
of Latin hymns. He was gentle and wise 
and won the favor of both Arians and 
Catholics. He was elected Bishop of 
Milan in 374. The famous Ambrosian 
Library at Milan was named in his honor. 
He died in Milan in 397. 

Ambrosia, am-bro'zha or zhi-a, in 
classical mythology, the food of the gods, 
capable of imparting immortality to any 
who partook of it. It is also represented 
as a richly perfumed unguent. Hence, in 
literature, the word is used to express the 
idea of divine beauty or excellence. See 
Nectar. 

His dewy locks distill’d ambrosia.—Milton. 

Ambulance, a vehicle for the convey¬ 
ance of the sick and wounded. During the 
wars of the French revolutionary period 
the term was applied to a field hospital 
on wheels. It was fitted up with cots, linen, 
and surgical tables, and was in charge of 
a surgeon. In the American Civil War the 
name was applied rather to large wagons 
used to gather up the wounded and to con¬ 
vey them to field hospitals. In many cities 
the ambulance service is admirably organ¬ 
ized. If a fireman or other person is in¬ 
jured, a telephone call brings an automo¬ 
bile ambulance in an incredibly short time. 
The Red Cross Society maintains an am¬ 
bulance service. Like the fire engine the 
ambulance has the right of way over ordi¬ 
nary vehicles. Rubber tires are of service 
in lessening the jolting which must be in¬ 
flicted on patients while being conveyed 
to the hospital. 

Amendment. See Constitution. 

America, the western continent includ¬ 


ing North and South America and adja¬ 
cent islands. The name was applied orig¬ 
inally to the eastern part of Brazil by 
reason of a book of travels written by 
the Florentine navigator, Amerigo Ves¬ 
pucci. In 1541 Mercator’s map extended 
the name to the entire western world. By 
a peculiar shift again, the term is now ap¬ 
plied, in a narrow and incorrect sense, to 
the United States by way of distinction 
from Canada, Mexico, and the countries 
of South America. 

Geology. Roughly speaking, America 
consists of two triangular land masses 
joined by a third known as Central Ameri¬ 
ca. There is a theory, probably fanciful, 
that in a remote geologic age the western 
continent was torn away from the eastern 
by a convulsion of nature and that the At¬ 
lantic Ocean now fills the chasm between. 
Whether well advised or not, the theory 
is useful to call attention to the nearly 
uniform width of the Atlantic when meas¬ 
ured on east and west lines; and to the 
fact that, were the continents brought to¬ 
gether, Africa would fit into the Caribbean 
region, Brazil would fill the Gulf of 
Guinea, and Labrador would approach the 
British Isles. The islands now in the way 
of such a joining are of recent, chiefly vol¬ 
canic, origin. Though called the New 
World, America is geologically an old con¬ 
tinent. The North American highlands, 
including Labrador, the Adirondacks, and 
the Great Lake region, northward to Hud¬ 
son Bay, are older than any portion of 
Europe. The rocks about the head of 
Lake Superior are among the oldest in the 
world. The eastern highlands of South 
America are also of great antiquity 

Topography. In many respects the 
physical features of North and South 
America are alike. The northeastern high¬ 
lands have been mentioned. The major 
mountain chain of each American grand 
division runs north and south along the 
western border; the Andes very near the 
ocean, the Rockies far enough from the 
coast to permit room for lower ranges and 
large areas of valuable territory. The 
Appalachians and the mountains of Brazil 
complete the comparison. As to rivers and 
their plains, the La Plata corresponds to 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 


the Mississippi; the Amazon to the St. 
Lawrence; the Orinoco to the Red River 
of the North and the Saskatchewan, and 
the Magdalena to the Mackenzie; but 
here the parallel stops. South America 
has no land mass corresponding to Alaska, 
no river answering to the mighty Yukon. 
The North American triangle is the larger. 
If we add the West Indies and Central 
America, its area is approximately 8,700,- 
000 square miles, while that of South 
America is reckoned at 7,300,000, a total 
area of 16,000,000 square miles for the 
continent, exclusive of Greenland. It is 
somewhat less than a third of all land 
areas of the world combined. The student 
cannot fail to note that the broken and 
irregular coasts of northern and of east¬ 
ern North America resemble in this re¬ 
spect the northern and western coasts of 
Europe; and that South America and 
Africa resemble each other in regularity 
of outline. The greater part of South 
America lies in the torrid zone. The 
greater part of North America lies in a 
temperate zone, greatly to the advantage 
of the North American countries. 

Flora and Fauna. In its plants and 
animals North America is closely related 
to Northern Asia and Europe; South 
America has a peculiar fauna and flora of 
its own. In respect to plants and animals 
Central America and the West Indies re¬ 
semble South America. The North Amer¬ 
ican animals of the deer, cat, and dog 
families are quite like those of north Asia 
and Europe. In the case of rats, mice, 
squirrels, marmots, and a long list of fur¬ 
bearing animals, as the beaver, marten, and 
otters, the similarity is close, and many 
native animals are apparently identical. 
The same remark applies to fishes, as pike, 
trout, salmon; to birds and insects without 
number, and even to serpents. The opos¬ 
sum may be mentioned as a strictly North 
American animal. 

In South America, on the contrary, in¬ 
cluding Central America and the West In¬ 
dies, as stated, the animals are quite dis¬ 
tinct from their Old World relatives. There 
are a few- native animals also found else¬ 
where. The numerous monkeys and par¬ 
rots of the South American forests are pe¬ 


culiar to the region. The sloth, armadillo, 
ant-eater, tapir, llama, capybara, guinea 
pig, boa, and anaconda are as peculiar to 
South America as the zebra and the hippo¬ 
potamus are to Africa. Many humming¬ 
birds, flycatchers, pigeons, goatsuckers, 
wading birds, the rhea, and others, in fact 
the greater part of 3,000 species, are 
known only to the South American region. 
It is the egg collector’s paradise. In fishes, 
too, Agassiz found the waters rich. Stur¬ 
geon and perches are entirely wanting, but 
he found over a thousand new species in 
the waters of the Amazon alone. 

Between the border of the Arctic Ocean 
and Patagonia there is room for a variety 
of plant regions that we cannot take space 
to describe in full. The sharpest contrasts 
are found within the tropics where differ¬ 
ences in moisture and elevation produce 
corresponding differences in vegetation. 
Within a few degrees of the equator are 
found the lofty forests of the Amazon, in 
which ordinary trees are but underbrush; 
the grassy plains of the llanos of the 
Orinoco; the upland fertile valleys of the 
Andes; the region of eternal ice and snow; 
volcanoes under the equator itself, and 
barren deserts on the Pacific coast. No 
greater contrast is possible and many in¬ 
teresting parallels may be drawn. The 
frozen tundras of the Arctic coast, with 
moss, shrub, and saxifrage, correspond in 
a way to the barren rocks of Patagonia; 
the Great Plains to the cattle region of 
Argentina; the cereal region of the Mis¬ 
sissippi Valley to that of the La Plata; 
Mexico to the uplands of Bolivia and 
Peru; while the West Indies have points 
in common with the coffee country of Bra¬ 
zil and with the banana region of Central 
America. 

See articles on the various countries, 
rivers, cities, minerals, animals, plants, etc. 

American Association for the Ad¬ 
vancement of Science, The, an organ¬ 
ization for the promotion of scientific 
work and research and to gain an influence 
over scientific movements. It was organ¬ 
ized as the Association of American Geo- 

f 

logists, but adopted the present name in 
1847. The Association is divided into the 
following sections: Mathematics and 


AMERICAN CIVIC ASS’N—AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


astronomy, physics, chemistry, mechanical 
science and engineering, geology and geo¬ 
graphy, zoology, botany, anthropology, 
economic science and statistics. The asso- 
citaion holds annual meetings and pub¬ 
lishes an annual volume of proceedings, 
which is one of the most valuable con¬ 
tributions to scientific literature in Amer¬ 
ica. There are about 3,500 members, 
consisting of the most prominent leaders 
of science in America, leading educators 
and others in sympathy with the w r ork. 

American Civic Association, an or¬ 
ganization formed in 1904 for the “culti¬ 
vation of higher ideals of civic life and 
beauty in America; the promotion of city, 
town and neighborhood improvement; the 
preservation and development of landscape, 
and the advancement of indoor art.” The 
association works along national lines. City 
planning, rural improvement, the selection 
and development of parks and boulevards, 
judicious tree planting, the elimination of 
smoke, billboards, the house-fly nuisance, 
and the organization of adults and chil¬ 
dren into working bodies for civic improve¬ 
ment are among the leading activities. 

American Farm Bureau Federation, 
a national federation of state farm bureaus 
and similar agricultural societies. The 
purpose of the organization as stated in 
the constitution are: “To correlate and 
strengthen the state farm bureaus and 
similar state organizations; to promote, 
protect and represent the business, eco¬ 
nomic and educational interests of the 
farmers of the nation and to develop agri¬ 
culture.” 

The governing body consists of a board 
of directors representing the state federa¬ 
tions. This board holds annual and spe¬ 
cial meetings. The administrative affairs 
are in the hands of an executive committee 
of tw r elve members, representing the differ¬ 
ent sections of the United States and hav¬ 
ing power to elect a salaried secretary. 
The Federation was organized in Chi¬ 
cago, in November. 1919. 

American Legion. A non-political 
organization with membership open to all 
persons who were in the military, naval 
or marine service of the United States 
between April 6, 1917 and November 11, 


1918. The object of the association is 
to uphold and defend the Constitution of 
the United States; maintain law and or¬ 
der; foster and perpetuate a 100 per cent 
Americanism; combat autocracy whether 
of classes or masses; to make right the 
master of might; to promote peace and 
good will on earth; to safeguard and 
transmit to posterity principles of justice, 
freedom and democracy; to sanctify the 
comradeship of war by mutual helpful¬ 
ness. It was organized in May, 1919, at 
St. Louis with temporary officers only and 
it was there decided to hold the first an¬ 
nual convention in Minneapolis in Novem¬ 
ber. Here the organization was perfected 
and national officers chosen. Meanwhile 
it had been incorporated by special act of 
Congress September 18, 1919. The first 
National Commander was Franklin 
D’Ollier of Philadelphia. Headquarters 
of the American Legion was established 
at Indianapolis, Indiana. The organiza¬ 
tion soon attained a membership of a 
million. The second annual convention 
was held in Cleveland in late September, 
1920. The convention went on record in 
favor of continuing its policy of strict 
neutrality on all political questions. Col. 
J. W. Galbraith, Jr., of Cincinnati, was 
elected National Commander. 

Women's Auxiliary. The Women’s 
Auxiliary was established at the conven¬ 
tion in Minneapolis in 1919. Membership 
in the Auxiliary is limited to the mothers, 
wives, daughters and sisters of members 
of the American Legion, and to the 
mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of all 
men and women who were in the military 
and naval service of the United States 
between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 
1920. The Auxiliary is governed by the 
same constitution as the League and has 
practically the same lines of work 

American Museum of Natural His- 
tory, The. It is located in Central Park, 
New York City. It was founded in 1869. 
It is one of the greatest and most impor¬ 
tant natural history museums in the world. 
It ranks with the National or Smithsonian 
Museum, at Washington, D. C., and is ex¬ 
celled only by the British Museum in Lon¬ 
don. It was begun by private citizens, 


AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION—AMERICANISM 


\ 


but is now a public institution, and free 
to all. The material exhibited is rich and 
varied, and is arranged with a view to 
the greatest educational value. There are 
large collections of shells; skeletons of 
now extinct or rare animals; a great va¬ 
riety of living mammals; birds, alive and 
dead; models of cliff dwellings in Colo¬ 
rado ; pottery of the mound-builders; stone 
implements used by people in the so-called 
Stone Age, and a large collection of rocks 
and precious stones. See Meteorite. 

American Ornithologists’ Union, a 
society of students of birds. The society 
was founded in 1883. Its membership is 
limited to twenty-five honorary members, 
among whom are the most eminent orni¬ 
thologists of foreign countries; fifty active 
members residents of North America; one 
hundred corresponding members, and as¬ 
sociate members, resident in North Ameri¬ 
ca. Any person interested in birds may be¬ 
come an associate member. An annual 
meeting is held in one of the Atlantic 
cities. The Auk, Cambridge, Massachu¬ 
setts, a quarterly magazine, is the official 
organ of the A. O. U., as the union is 
called. See Audubon Society. 

American Party, or Know-Nothing 
Party, in American politics, an organiza¬ 
tion opposed to foreign-born voters and to 
Roman Catholic influence in national af¬ 
fairs. During the late forties of the nine¬ 
teenth century there was a tremendous 
emigration from Ireland into this coun¬ 
try. Irish laborers poured into the At¬ 
lantic cities. Our naturalization laws per¬ 
mitted them to become voters on short no¬ 
tice. They controlled the cities, and were 
a large factor in state politics. The agi¬ 
tation against the Irish centered in New 
York and'Philadelphia. Both parties were 
guilty of mob violence and rioting. The 
native Americans went so far as to burn 
Irish Catholic churches. The Irish voters 
paraded the streets with banners bearing 
such mottoes as “Americans shan’t rule us.” 
Anti-foreign sentiment, chiefly against the 
French, led the Federalists in 1798 to in¬ 
crease the term for naturalization from 
five to fourteen years. The same sentiment 
was responsible for the passage of the Alien 
and Sedition Laws. Although the Repub¬ 


licans repealed the Federal naturalization 
law in 1802, agitation continued. In 1835 
a vigorous anti-foreign political movement 
was started in New York City. In 1844 
the American party cast six electoral votes 
for Clay. In 1852 increased Irish emi¬ 
gration following the potato famine of 
1846 started up the Americans anew. The 
nucleus of the party was a secret, oath 
bound society. From a constant habit of 
answering all inquiries with the profession 
of not knowing, they were called the Know- 
Nothings. In 1854 the Know-Nothing 
party carried state elections in Massachu¬ 
setts and Delaware. In 1855 they carried 
most of the New England states, New 
York, Maryland, Kentucky, and Califor¬ 
nia. In 1856 the Know-Nothing national 
ticket received 874,000 out of a total of 
4,000,000 votes, and actually elected six 
members of the electoral college. From 
this time on the party declined. The re¬ 
sults of the Civil War, during which for¬ 
eign-born citizens rendered signal service 
to the Union cause, gave the Know-Noth¬ 
ing party its quietus. 

Americanism, in the history of the 
English language and literature, a word, 
phrase, or idiom peculiar to the United 
States. Some expressions known by the term 
have originated in America. Hominy, wig¬ 
wam, squaw, moose, pemmican, and teepee 
are words of this sort. They are chiefly of 
Indian origin. Some expressions that are 
colloquial in England have been raised 
to the rank of national usage in this coun¬ 
try. Other words and expressions known 
only in some parts of Great Britain, be¬ 
longing to the dialect of a district, have 
been imported to this country and have 
come into general use. Many English 
words have acquired new meanings on our 
soil, and still other words, once reputable, 
have become obsolete in England, but are 
still retained by Americans. Similar ex¬ 
pressions and idioms are to be heard in 
Canada, Australia, India, and South Afri¬ 
ca, in short, in all regions where a con¬ 
siderable number of English speaking peo¬ 
ple have colonized. The following list 
may be regarded as representative, but by 
no means exhaustive: 


AMERICANISM 


Baggage, trunks, handbags, and other per¬ 
sonal belongings. The corresponding 
English expression is luggage. 

Bee, a gathering of neighbors or young 
people to do a piece of work; as a husk¬ 
ing bee, to husk corn; a quilting bee to 
make a quilt. 

Bee-line, a straight line across country. We 
may say of a woodsman, for example, 
that he takes a bee-line for home. 

Blaze, to strike a bit of bark from a tree 
with an ax. Surveyors blaze a line 
through the woods. 

Blizzard, a violent snowstorm. 

Boss, a political manager. Boss Tweed 
of New York City may be mentioned as 
an eminent example of the American 
political boss. 

Buggy, a light, four-wheeled driving ve¬ 
hicle. 

Calculate, to suppose. 

Canebrake, a thicket of cane. 

Canyon, a deep water-worn gorge. 

Caucus, a meeting to nominate candidates 
for office. 

Clearing, a field opened in the heart of a 
wood. The term is applied also to the 
operation of removing trees and stumps. 

Corn, maize or Indian corn. The British 
restrict the term to small grains. 

Creek, a small stream. The English call 
a short, narrow arm of the sea a creek. 

Crevasse, a break in the embankment of 
a river; a leak in a dike. 

Deadhead , one who rides or enters free 
when others pay. 

Deed, to convey title. 

Depot , a railway station. This use of the 
word is clearly wrong. A depot is, by 
rights, a place for the storage of pro¬ 
visions or goods. 

Drummer, a traveling salesman; one who 
drums up trade. 

Fall, the autumn season. 

Gerrymander, to redistrict a state in order 
to advance the interests of a party or 
candidate. 

Grit, courage, determination. Sand is used 
with much the same meaning. 

Grocery, a place where groceries are sold. 
In great Britain a grocery is an article 
offered for sale. It is never the place of 
business. 


Guess, to suppose; as, “I guess so,” for ‘‘I 
think so.” 

Gulch, a ravine. 

Jew, to haggle over prices. 

Johnny cake, bread made from cornmeal. 
Hoecake is a similar word. 

Levee, a river embankment, a dike. 

Lick, a salt spring frequented by animals. 
There are famous licks in Kentucky. 

Likely, promising; as, a likely candidate. 
A likely lad is a lad of promise. The 
term, “likely negro,” was used not in¬ 
frequently in advertising slaves. 

Logrolling, in legislative circles, a sys¬ 
tem of exchanging help. Condensely 
stated, it means, “You vote for my meas¬ 
ure and I’ll vote for yours.” 

Lot, a small tract of ground, as a city lot, 
a wood lot. 

Moccasin, a soft Indian shoe made origi¬ 
nally of buckskin. 

One-horse, half able to do business; as, a 
one-horse concern. 

Platform, a statement of political princi¬ 
ples. The various measures proclaimed 
in a political platform are called 
“planks.” 

Prairie, a grassy plain. 

Ranch, a western farm. 

Ride, to travel in a vehicle. The British 
ride on a horse or other animal; they 
travel or journey in a conveyance. 

Saloon, a place where intoxicating drinks 
are sold. A European saloon is a place 
of reception; as, the saloon (or salon) 
of Madame de Stael. 

Shanty, a pioneer hut. A similar term is 
the dugout. 

Shop, a workshop. A British shop is a 
place where articles are offered for sale. 
A shopworn article, for instance, is an 
article offered for sale until it has de¬ 
teriorated. 

Spry, agile, active. Emerson’s squirrel, 
we may remember, reminds the moun¬ 
tain : 

You are not so small as I, 

And not half so spry. 

Squelch, to repress, to put down; as, to 
squelch an incipient riot. 

Stampede, a sudden flight, to put to flight. 
Thus we may speak of stampeding a 
drove of cattle, or we may say that the 


AMERIGO VESPUCCI—AMIENS 


crowd stampeded when the police ap¬ 
peared. 

Store, a place of sale. The word origi¬ 
nally meant warehouse. 

Stump, to go about making political 
speeches. Douglas and Lincoln, for in¬ 
stance, stumped Illinois together. 
Succotash, green corn and beans boiled to¬ 
gether. 

Telescope, a kind of hand bag. The name 
has evidently arisen from the fact that 
one part of the telescope slides into the 
other, like a box into a deep cover. 
Tenderfoot, a newcomer; one unfamiliar 
with the ways of the country. In the 
West, especially, anyone newly arrived 
from the East is called a tenderfoot. A 
country lad in the city is more likely to 
be called a greenhorn. 

Ugly, ill natured. 

Vest, a masculine garment known in Eng¬ 
land as a waistcoat. 

Whittle, to cut wood with a knife. Ac¬ 
cording to British usage, whittle is a 
knife-like implement. 

Amerigo Vespucci, ves-poot'che, or 
Americus Vespucius (1451-1512), an 
Italian navigator. He was a native of 
Florence and was educated by an uncle 
who was a friend of Savonarola. Amerigo 
showed a decided preference for geog¬ 
raphy and astronomy. He was placed as 
clerk in a commercial house of the Medici. 
Later he entered the service of a merchant 
at Seville, where he contracted to fit out 
vessels for foreign trade. On the death of 
this merchant Amerigo filled out an im¬ 
portant contract for the king of Spain. 
Doubtless he was acquainted with Colum¬ 
bus, in fact there is some evidence that he 
accompanied the great discoverer on one 
of his voyages. It is certain that Vespucci, 
now nearly fifty years old, made several 
voyages to the New World, reached the 
northern coast of South America more 
than once, and probably in one voyage 
touched North America. The fact that 
the New World was named for the ex¬ 
plorer was doubtless due to accident, the 
suggestion having been made first in an in¬ 
accurate account of his voyages published 
in 1507, and stating that he reached the 
mainland before either Columbus or Cabot. 


Vespucci wrote diaries and letters con¬ 
cerning his explorations, but did not claim 
to have been the first to reach the main¬ 
land. 

Amethyst, a variety of quartz, stained 
a violet blue or purple by a trace of iron 
or manganese. It is a very handsome stone, 
much used for charms, seals, and rings, 
but is too common to be considered pre¬ 
cious. It occurs in crystals in the interior 
of agate geodes, nodules, and other rock 
cavities. The finest specimens are ob¬ 
tained in India, Ceylon, Brazil, and Sibe¬ 
ria. Very handsome amethysts are obtained 
along the shores of Lake Superior. The 
amethystine sapphire, a gem of great 
beauty and brilliancy, is often called the 
oriental amethyst. It is a variety of corun¬ 
dum, and much more valuable than the 
amethyst proper. 

Amherst College, an influential insti¬ 
tution at Amherst, Mass. It was opened as 
an academy December, 1814. Among the 
distinguished educators connected with its 
development, Edward Hitchcock, the geolo¬ 
gist, and President J. H. Seelye may be 
named. The number of students enrolled 
for the year 1922-23 was 520, and the 
faculty numbered 48 instructors. The pro¬ 
ductive funds (1921-1922) were $4,810,- 
576; income for the same period $476,087. 
The library contained 300,000 volumes. 
On June 18-22, (1921), Amherst cele¬ 
brated its centennial. Lord Jeffery Am¬ 
herst, a descendant of Lord Amherst, from 
whose name that of the college was taken, 
was a guest of the occasion. The celebra¬ 
tion included historical exercises and ad¬ 
dresses by well-known Amherst alumni and 
others. The Institute of Politics held in 
1921 was an important event. 

Amiens, a'mi-an', an ancient French 
city on the Somme, seventy-one miles north 
of Paris. The river here divides into 
eleven canals, gaining for the city the name 
of Little Venice. The old walls, save the 
citadel, have been leveled to form wide 
boulevards. A museum, a library of note, 
a fine city hall, and numerous learned so¬ 
cieties give Amiens an atmosphere of cul¬ 
ture; but its pride is the Cathedral of 
Notre Dame, sometimes called the “Par¬ 
thenon of Gothic Architecture.” It was 


AMMON—AMMUNITION 


built 1220-1288, and is considered one of 
the finest cathedrals in Europe. The 
vaulted ceiling of the nave is 141 feet 
above the pavement of the floor. Many a 
siege was withstood by the old city, and 
many a battle was fought under its walls. 
The famous treaty of Amiens was con¬ 
cluded here in 1802, between Great Britain, 
France, Spain, and Holland. Peter the 
Hermit, who lived in the eleventh century, 
was a native - of Amiens. The Prussians 
occupied the city in 1870. The modern 
city has a population of 92,000. It is an 
important manufacturing and distributing 
center. Cotton, velvets, woolen and linen 
cloth, flax, beet-root sugar, leather, paper, 
and soap are among the local products. 

Ammon, an Egyptian deity whose wor¬ 
ship extended through many parts of 
North Africa and Greece, but centered at 
the Egyptian city of Thebes. Ammon was 
represented in Egyptian art usually as a 
person with the head and horns of a ram. 
He was the protector of cattle and shep¬ 
herds. The reader may recall that Alex¬ 
ander the Great toiled through the Libyan 
Desert to the famous oracle of Jupiter 
Ammon in an oasis. He is said to have 
been gratified by a declaration of the 
priests to the effect that he was a son of 
Jupiter. 

Ammonia, a colorless, pungent gas 
composed of one atom of nitrogen to three 
of hydrogen. It is a light gas, about half 
as heavy as ordinary air. It flies up one’s 
nose with an acrid, intense effect, bringing 
tears into the eyes. Ammonia is absorbed 
readily by water, in which form, of greater 
or less strength, it is usually sold, and is a 
familiar household article. The name is 
thought to have been derived from the 
temple of Ammon in Egypt, in the neigh¬ 
borhood of which, it is stated, ammonia 
was prepared first from the dung of cam¬ 
els. Ammonia was prepared formerly in 
commercial quantities by heating the ant¬ 
lers of deer in a retort, whence the spirits 
of hartshorn, used as the basis of smelling 
salts for headache. It is now obtained 
chiefly as a by-product in the preparation 
of illuminating gas from coal. About five 
pounds of ammonia are obtained from one 
ton of coal. At a temperature of —29° 


Fahrenheit ammonia liquefies. As it ab- 
sorbs an immense amount of heat in va¬ 
porizing, it is much used in making arti¬ 
ficial ice and in creating the degree of cold 
required for cold-storage. Large quanti¬ 
ties of ammonia are required in dyeing es¬ 
tablishments and in cotton factories. It 
is indispensable in the printing of calico. 
See Ice; Cold Storage. 

Ammonite, a fossil .shell belonging to 
an extensive genus of extinct mollusks. 
They were allied to the chambered nau¬ 
tilus. The shells were lined with pearl 
and furnished with partitions. The fossils 
vary in size from a pin head to shells four 
feet in diameter. All are curled up like 
flat snail shells. Ammonites have a fan¬ 
cied resemblance to a ram’s horn, or the 
horn of Jupiter Ammon, whence the name. 
In Scott’s Marmion, Whitby’s nuns tell 
their hosts of Lindisfarne: 

How, of thousand snakes, each one 
Was changed into a coil of stone 
When holy Hilda prayed; 

Themselves, within their holy bound 
Their stony folds had often found. 

Ammunition, a term originally applied 
to all military stores or supplies for attack 
or defense; but confined in modern Amer¬ 
ican usage to the materials which are used 
in the discharge of firearms and artillery 
of all kinds, as powder, shot, various kinds 
of shells, bombs, etc. Ammunition of 
which the materials are combined in cart¬ 
ridges or otherwise to facilitate the loading 
of firearms or ordnance is called “fixed” 
ammunition; and the term metallic am¬ 
munition is applied to fixed ammunition for 
small arms, including rifles and shot-guns, 
and for machine-guns and rapid firing 
guns of small caliber, inclosed in brass or 
copper cartridge cases. A round of am¬ 
munition is a single charge or load of fixed 
ammunition. 

All ammunition consists essentially of 
three parts, namely, the exploding charge, 
usually gunpowder, the projectile, and a 
primer, and in fixed ammunition these are 
all combined in a single piece or shell, of 
varying sizes. For heavy guns, the ex¬ 
plosive charge is loaded separately from 
the projectile, and the primer may also be 
separate. Fixed ammunition is generally 


AMMUNITION 


used for army and navy guns of calibers 
not exceeding four inches, while guns of 
larger caliber usually have the powder 
charges put up in powder bags, for sepa¬ 
rate loading into the guns. 

bixed ammunition is usually put up in 
metallic cartridge cases, made of hard- 
drawn brass, with a rim or groove around 
the base, to enable the extractor to take 
hold of the empty case and withdraw it 
after firing. The rim also assists in hold¬ 
ing the shell in its proper position in the 
chamber of the gun. Cardboard or papier- 
mache shell cases are commonly used for 
breechloading shotguns, but the shell base 
is formed of brass. 

Powder charges are ignited in all fire¬ 
arms and ordnance by means of primers, 
of which there are four types; namely, per¬ 
cussion, friction, electric, and a combina¬ 
tion of percussion and electric primers. 
Percussion primers are used in small arms 
and light artillery. They ignite the charge 
by means of a percussion cap in the head, 
when this is struck by the firing pin of the 
gun lock. The common small arm primer 
is fulminate of mercury. Friction primers 
operate by the friction of a strip of metal 
drawn through the fulminate in the primer 
head. This type of primer is most fre¬ 
quently used to detonate the explosive 
charge of shells and grenades. Electric 
primers are ignited by an electric spark, 
and guns thus equipped may be fired from 
a considerable distance, if necessary. The 
combination primer, which is largely used 
in heavy guns of modern type, is arranged 
to be fired by either electricity or percus¬ 
sion. 

The artillery projectiles of modern war¬ 
fare are of a great variety of sizes and 
usually have bursting charges. Naval pro¬ 
jectiles are designed for penetrating armor- 
plates and are the heaviest of all; and 
when the charge required to project them 
exceeds 100 pounds, the gunpowder is 
loaded into the gun in sections, put up in 
bags of serge or silk. 

From the first use of cannon in ships in 
the sixteenth century, there was little de¬ 
velopment in the science or industry of 
explosives until the nineteenth century, but 
it reached the proportions of a tremendous 


industry in the World War period, 1 OH¬ 
IO 18, in Europe and America. Many in¬ 
dustrial establishments in the United States 
were converted into ammunition factories 
during the war, and they had an immense 
output. The use of high explosives for 
the bursting charges of artillery shells was 
developed, and the term “TNT,” for tri¬ 
nitrotoluol, became familiar. This is only 
one of many modern explosives used as 
bursting charges, such as cheddite, cordite, 
etc. Like smokeless powder and nitro¬ 
glycerine, it is made by treating organic 
materials with a mixture of nitric and sul¬ 
phuric acids. When the war closed, all 
surplus TNT and other explosives owned 
by the War Department, which could be 
used in clearing land, .building roads, and 
general construction work, were turned 
over to the Department of the Interior; 
and this material, which at one time was 
considered practically worthless, had an 
estimated value of $15,000,000 for peace¬ 
ful purposes. 

Ammunition for machine guns is usually 
assembled in strips or belts of cartridges, 
which are fed automatically into the gun. 
Army experts, in 1922, developed a new 
type of bullet for use in rifles and ma¬ 
chine guns. This is called a boat-tail bul¬ 
let, because of a six-degree taper at its tail, 
and exhaustive tests are said to have shown 
that the change in shape had added greatly 
to the maximum range attained, while flat' 
tening the trajectory, or arc of flight, ap¬ 
proximately 30 per cent at a range of 1,000 
yards, thus rendering the fire more danger¬ 
ous to an enemy in its path, by decreasing 
the “zone of safety.” 

In early days a gun was loaded with a 
charge of powder followed by a wad of 
tow or paper; then a spherical bullet or a 
charge of shot, and in the latter case a 
second wad to keep the shot in place. The 
first wad enabled the powder to force the 
load out. Percussion caps ignited by a 
blow of a hammer were invented about 

1830. The metallic cartridge in which the 
powder and lead are contained, as well as 
a percussion priming by which the powder 
is fired, is credited to French invention in 

1831. Elongated or Minie bullets were 
used in the Crimean War. A much longer 


AMNESTY—AMOEBA 


steel bullet is used in a modern Winchester. 
Bullets that flatten or explode in the body 
are forbidden by the ethics of modern war¬ 
fare. They are called “dum-dum” bullets. 

Amnesty, an act declaring that certain 
offenses, usually political, have been over¬ 
looked. A pardon is the forgiving of an 
individual person for a crime committed. 
The offense is still an offense, and the per¬ 
son is still guilty, but is forgiven. In 
case of amnesty, proclamation is made that 
the offense is obliterated, and those con¬ 
cerned will not be punished. It is consid¬ 
ered public policy to issue an amnesty 
proclamation at the close of a civil war 
or an insurrection. Sometimes individuals 
are excepted from the benefit of the proc¬ 
lamation. When the Stuart family was 
restored to England in 1660, Charles II 
issued a proclamation of amnesty excepting, 
however, thirteen persons by name, who 
were closely concerned in the execution of 
his royal father, Charles I. Two of these 
regicides, Goffe and Whalley, escaped to 
New England and lived for many years 
in partial concealment among their friends. 
At one stage of the American Revolution 
the British government offered a general 
amnesty to all Americans who should lay 
down their arms, John Hancock and Sam¬ 
uel Adams being excepted by name. The 
Continental Congress made a serious mis¬ 
take in not issuing a proclamation of gener¬ 
al amnesty at the close of the American 
Revolution. A large number of American 
royalists, people of intelligence and wealth, 
were compelled to leave for Canada and 
England to the corresponding loss of our 
own country. A general amnesty was pro¬ 
claimed at the close of Shays’ Rebellion, 
1787 ; and another from which a few, no¬ 
tably Jefferson Davis, were for a time ex¬ 
cepted, was proclaimed at the close of the 
American Civil War in 1865. 

Amoeba, a-me'ba, plural amoebae, a 
low form of animal life found occasionally 
in fresh water. A dipper-full of water 
from the edge or bottom of a grassy, stag¬ 
nant pool may contain hundreds of amoe¬ 
bae. An amoeba is so small that it cannot 
be seen with the naked eye. Examination 
of a drop of the water under a miscroscope 
is necessary for its identification. It is 


then found to be a particle of white jelly, 
having a somewhat granular central por¬ 
tion and an outer transparent part. When 
first seen, the amoeba may appear to be 
entirely motionless; but careful observa¬ 
tion show T s it to be constantly in motion, 
although it has neither head, tail, nor feet; 
nor eyes, ears, or nose. It moves about 
from place to place by thrusting any part 
of its body out into narrow r but blunt pro¬ 
jections, and then drawing in the projec¬ 
tions which it does not need for advance. 

When the amoeba is examined with a 
high power microscope, objects which 
otherwise w^ould escape notice are seen 
within its substance. One of these is a 
small, rounded body, darker in color than 
the surrounding substance, and preserving 
its form at all times. This object is called 
the 7iucleus. The nucleus is made of pro¬ 
toplasm, just as is the entire body of the 
amoeba; but it is surrounded by a mem¬ 
brane and refracts light more strongly than 
the body of the amoeba. The other object 
seen is a clear, rounded space, apparently 
filled w r ith a w r atery fluid. This is called 
a vacuole. It increases and then decreases 
in size many times during an hour, and is 
thought to expel a liquid wdiich it receives 
from the surrounding protoplasm. 

The amoeba is a type of the one-celled 
animals, for a particle of living protoplasm 
containing a nucleus is called a cell. It 
has no organs of any kind, except the nu¬ 
cleus and vacuole. Although so simple 
in its structure the amoeba growls, takes 
nourishment, digests and assimilates food, 
excretes w r aste matter, and produces other 
creatures like itself, as do the higher ani¬ 
mals. Its food consists of very small one- 
celled plants, or of particles of higher 
plants or animals. It engulfs or envelopes 
a food-particle in the substance of its body, 
w r here it becomes surrounded by a watery 
globule and finally disappears. The indi¬ 
gestible part, if there is any, passes out of 
the body. That portion of the food w r hich 
is retained is doubtless mixed with the sub¬ 
stance of the body and adds to its size. 

When an amoeba becomes full-grown, 
the nucleus divides into two nuclei. The 
protoplasmic body of the amoeba also di¬ 
vides in such a v r ay that each part contains 


AMPERE—AMPKION 


one of the nuclei, and in this way two 
amoebae are formed. When these two be¬ 
come full-grown, the same operation is re¬ 
peated, so far as known indefinitely, so 
that the amoeba is sometimes said to be 
“immortal.” 

There are many species of amoebae, 
some harmless, others producing diseases 
(malaria, dysentery, etc.), if introduced in¬ 
to the body by drinking water or otherwise. 

See Bacterium. 

Ampere, arn'par, Andre Marie (1775- 

1836), a French scientist. A native of 
Lyons. His father fell under the guillo¬ 
tine in 1793. Yqung Ampere was well edu¬ 
cated and became a professor of physics 
in the University of Paris. A member of 
the French Institute, 1814. Several trea¬ 
tises by Ampere give him high place in the 
development of the science of electricity. 
His most renowned work is a Collection of 
Observations on Electro Dynamics, 1822. 
Ampere’s discoveries in the field of science 
were remembered by giving his name to the 
unit of electrical current. An ampere is the 
current corresponding to an electromo¬ 
tive force of one volt moving through an 
ohm of resistance. It is about the current 
of a Daniell cell through thirty-nine feet 
of No. 24 copper wire. 

Amphiaraus. See Seven against 
Thebes. 

Amphibians, in popular language, ani¬ 
mals living both on land and in the water. 
This usage of the word covers animals 
that breathe atmospheric air, but disport 
themselves in water with ease and enjoy¬ 
ment. When in the water they require to 
come to the surface to breathe. The term 
includes the hippopotamus, the water rat, 
the beaver, the otter, the mink, the seal, 
the walrus, the alligator, the crocodile, the 
turtle, the frog, the newt, the water snake, 
the duckbill—it is hard to say where the 
list leaves off. As used by zoologists, am¬ 
phibians are the frogs, toads, newts, sala¬ 
manders, sirens, axolotle, etc. The young 
of these animals are provided with gills, 
tadpole fashion, and breathe in the water. 
The adults breathe atmospheric air. 
Though at home in water or on land, they 
drown if forced to remain submerged. The 
lowest amphibians are footless, worm-like, 


creatures, chiefly tropical, which scientists 
have not had opportunity to study with 
care. See articles on the various animals 
named. 

Amphictyonic (am-fic'tT-on'ic) Coun¬ 
cil, the court of a league of twelve 
Grecian states to protect the temple of 
Apollo at Delphi. The purpose was re¬ 
ligious, not political. The delegates of the 
league, two for each city, met in solemn 
conclave to determine matters of worship 
and incidentally to adjust quarrels between 
cities. We learn from Aeschines that the 
delegates had equal voice, and that the 
members of the league bound themselves 
by oath that “they would destroy no city 
of the Amphictyons, nor cut off their 
streams in war or peace; and if any should 
do so, they would march against him and 
destroy his cities; and should any pillage 
the property of the god, or be privy to, 
or plan against, what was in his temple at 
Delphi, they would take vengeance on 
him.” The deputies met twice a year, al¬ 
ternately at Delphi and at Thermopylae. 
Membership in the league was a high 
honor. One of Philip’s first steps toward 
supremacy in Greece was to force the ad¬ 
mission of Macedon to a seat in the 
Amphictyonic Council. After that it no 
longer commanded respect, becoming ex¬ 
tinct in the second century. The word 
means “of those dwelling about.” Greece 
had many “amphictyonics,” of which the 
Delphic was only the most famous. See 
Areopagus; Philip II of Macedon. 

An Amphictyonic body was an assembly of 
the tribes who dwelt around any famous tem¬ 
ple, gathered together to manage the affairs of 
that temple. ... It is easy to understand how 
the religious functions of such a body might 
incidentally assume a political character. . . . 
Once or twice then in the course of Grecian his¬ 
tory, we do find the Amphictyonic body acting 
with real dignity in the name of united Greece. 
. . . The Amphictyonic Council was not ex¬ 
actly a diplomatic congress, but it was much 
more like a diplomatic congress than it was like 
the governing assembly of any commonwealth, 
kingdom or federation.—E. A. Freeman. 

Amphion, am-fi'un, in Greek mytholo¬ 
gy, a son of Zeus, and husband of Niobe. 
He was a famous musician. It was said 
that when he built the wall of Thebes, 
the stones moved voluntarily into place to 


AMPHITHEATER—AMSTERDAM 


the music of his lyre. So Apollo was said 
to have built Troy to music. Tennyson 
borrowed this idea in Idylls of the King, 
where he represents the “shadowy Came- 
lot” as having been built to music. Ten¬ 
nyson has also written a poem entitled 
Amphion, in which he treats the story of 
his musical power humorously: 

O had I lived when song was great 
In days of old Amphion 
And ta’en my fiddle to the gate, 

Nor cared for seed or scion ! 

And had I lived when song was great, 

And legs of trees were limber, 

And ta’en my fiddle to the gate, 

And fiddled in the timber! 

’Tis said he had a tuneful tongue, 

Such happy intonation, 

Wherever he sat down and sung 
He left a small plantation; 

Wherever in a lonely grove 

He set up his forlorn pipes, * 

The gouty oak began to move, 

And flounder into hornpipes. 

Amphitheater, a spacious elliptical 
building used by the Romans for games 
and wild beast shows. The term is composed 
of amphi, meaning both, and theater. The 
seats of the Greek theaters occupied one 
side only of an ellipse, while the stage 
held the center. In the Roman amphi¬ 
theater, both sides of the ellipse, that is 
to say, the entire border, were seated. See 
Coliseum. 

Amphitrite, am-fi-trl'te, in Greek 
mythology, a daughter of Oceanus and 
Tethys, or possibly of Nereus and Doris. 
Poseidon wished to make Amphitrite his 
wife. She hid from him, and he sent a 
dolphin to find her. The dolphin was suc¬ 
cessful, and as a reward received a place 
among the stars, where he may still be seen 
in the constellation Delphinus. In other 
accounts Poseidon is represented as 
seeking Amphitrite himself, but riding on 
the dolphin. Poseidon and Amphitrite 
succeeded Oceanus and Tethys as rulers 
of the waters. In art Amphitrite is rep¬ 
resented as drawn by tritons in a chariot 
of shells, or as riding on a dolphin, bear¬ 
ing the trident of Poseidon in her hand. 
See Poseidon; Tritons. 

O’er the green waves which gently bend and 
swell, 

Fair Amphitrite steers her silver shell; 


Her playful dolphins stretch the silken rein, 
Hear her sweet voice, and glide along the main. 

—Darwin. 

Amphora, am'fo-ra, a large, two- 
handled jug-like vessel of hard-baked, un¬ 
glazed clay, much used by the ancients. 
The name is Greek, meaning to carry with 
both, referring to the use of two hands, 
one on each handle. The amphora was a 
slender affair half as tall as a person. It 
had a narrow neck and ended in a sharp 
point below, that might be placed in a 
hole in a table or thrust into the ground 
to hold the jug upright. It was used to 
store grain, pulse, wine, honey, and olive 
oil, and often as an urn in which to keep 
the ashes of cremated relatives. As a meas¬ 
ure of capacity, the Greek amphora con¬ 
tained about nine English gallons; the 
Roman, six. Ornamental amphorae pro¬ 
vided with bases were made of precious 
metals, bronze, alabaster, and marble. Such 
vases were highly decorated and were giv¬ 
en often as prizes in athletic games. See 
Pottery. 

Amsterdam, dam of the Amstel, the 
chief city of the Netherlands. It is sit¬ 
uated on the Amstel River, at the center 
of a network of canals. The largest of 
these" give passage from the North Sea to 
steamers of over twenty-feet draught, mak¬ 
ing Amsterdam an ocean port. The city 
has the shape of a semicircle, with the 
diameter following the river. The blocks 
of the city are of an irregular shape. Ca¬ 
nals follow the middle of the streets, di¬ 
viding the city, as it were, into ninety-four 
islands. Walks lined with trees follow the 
canals on either side, and are carried across 
the river and canals by high bridges of 
stone, iron, or wood, beneath which boats 
may glide. Many of the houses and places 
of business stand with high gable ends 
toward the streets. 

The entire city is built over an old peat 
bed. The foundations of the buildings 
are supported on piles. The old statehouse, 
now a royal palace, stands, it is said, on 
13,659 piles, driven deep into the peaty 
soil. It covers a large city block. Within 
• is a magnificent banqueting hall, 120 feet 
long, 57 feet wide, and about 90 feet 
high. It is said to be the largest and most 


AMUNDSEN 


imposing in Europe. The wainscoting is 
of beautiful Italian marble. Various 
learned societies, a public university, muse¬ 
um, art gallery, the latter containing Rem¬ 
brandt’s masterpiece, the Night Watch, a 
botanical and a zoological garden, statues, 
several theaters, and musical societies give 
Amsterdam a claim to high rank as a city 
of learning, leisure, and culture. A mod¬ 
ern suburb across the river is a residence 
section. 

Commercially the city is no less pros¬ 
perous. Seen from a bridge or other point 
of vantage, the river and principal canals 
carry a forest of masts. Commerce is free 
from all tariff duties and is carried on 
with the Dutch colonies in distant parts of 
the world as well as with nearby nations. 
Foods, cloth, dyes, metals, woods, oils, 
herring, tobacco, furs, dairy products, and 
bulbs and other nursery stock are handled 
in enormous quantities. Among prominent 
local industries, brewing, distilling, sugar 
refining, sail and rope making, silk weav¬ 
ing, dyeing, preparation of chemicals, cut¬ 
ting and polishing diamonds, making gold 
and silver plate, printing, and type found¬ 
ing, may be mentioned. Amsterdam is the 
center of the Dutch Reformed Church. 

The country surrounding the city lies 
chiefly below the sea level. In summer 
green meadows stretch away in every di¬ 
rection, and are protected from the sea 
by dikes. Public waterworks have taken 
the place of rain-water cisterns; palatial 
hotels and clubs render Amsterdam a pleas¬ 
ant place for tourists. The old city walls 
have been converted into boulevards. Wind¬ 
mills add to the picturesque appearance of 
the suburbs. The population in 1921 was 
642,162. 

The history of Amsterdam is one of 
commercial ups and downs. In 1200 it 
was a small fishing village hard by the 
castle of the lords of Amstel. A century 
later the count of Holland assumed direct 
ownership, and granted the town a com¬ 
mercial charter. An irregular semicircle, 
now occupied by beautiful parks and boule¬ 
vards, marks the site of a fortifying wall 
erected in 1482. The union of the seven 
provinces in 1579, and the formation of 
the Dutch East India Company in 1602, 


made Amsterdam the busy mart of a na¬ 
tion that at one time hoped to drive 
British shipping from the sea. The early 
name of New York, it may be remembered, 
was New Amsterdam. The Peace of 
Westphalia, 1648, closed the rival port of 
Antwerp and gave Amsterdam a tempo¬ 
rary but great advantage. During the Na¬ 
poleonic wars the ships of Amsterdam 
lay rotting at the wharves, and wealthy 
families were reduced to poverty. Am¬ 
sterdam has been occupied by the army of 
an enemy more than once. See Nether¬ 
lands ; Antwerp ; Hague. 

Amsterdam, N. Y., is 33 miles north¬ 
west of Albany on the north bank of the 
Mohawk River. It was settled about 1775 
under the name of Veedersburg.The pres¬ 
ent name was adopted in 1804. It has a 
public library, modern schools, and St. 
Mary’s Institute is located here. Woven 
and knit goods are the most important 
manufactures. Populatiqn, in 1920, 
33,524. 

A'mundsen, Roald (1872-) a distin¬ 
guished explorer and navigator. Among 
the many notable achievements of the first 
decade of the twentieth century, which, be¬ 
cause of the number of such events, has not 
received its just share of attention, was the 
discovery of the Northwest Passage. That 
famous route, sought for more than four 
hundred years by men whose names are 
honored in the realm of explorations, was 
traversed for the first time by the intrepid 
sailor, Amundsen. Born in Borge, Norway, 
enjoying but a common school education, 
with but a sailor’s usual experiences till 
25 years of age, he then joined a south 
polar expedition. Upon his return he de¬ 
cided to seek the north magnetic pole and 
if possible make the Northwest Passage, for 
which he spent a number of years in study 
and preparation. With what many re¬ 
garded as a mere cockle-shell of a boat, 
less than seventy-five feet long, propelled by 
a petroleum engine, and accompanied by 
eight more sailors, he set out from Chris¬ 
tiania in June, 1903. After two years of ex¬ 
ploration and observation, his little boat, 
the Gjoa, threading its way through the 
straits where none had gone before, in 
Octobei, 1905, was frozen in near thd 


AMUR—ANABAPTISTS 


mouth of the Mackenzie River. From here, 
in the brief space of six weeks, though it 
was the dead of Arctic winter, he made his 
way overland 700 miles to a settlement. In 
the spring he returned and took his boat 
through Behring Strait to San Francisco, 
the little Gjoa being the first to pass from 
Atlantic to Pacific north of North Amer¬ 
ica. On December 14, 1911 with four com¬ 
panions Amundsen raised the Norwegian 
flag at the South Pole. The expedition 
left Christiana in June, 1910 in Nansen’s 
ship, the Fram, ostensibly bound for Behr¬ 
ing Strait via Cape Horn. From Madeira 
he cabled that he was going to the Antarctic 
in an endeavor to reach the South Pole. On 
February 10, 1911 his land party began 
establishing advance depots for the polar 
sledge journey which actually began Octo¬ 
ber 20, reached its goal on December 14, 
and ended January 25, 1912 with the re¬ 
turn to the Bay of Whales, one year from 

the time of landing. 

Captain Amundsen left Norway in the 
steamer Maud in June, 1918, intending to 
drift across the Arctic Ocean. He met 
with misfortune, and spent the winter of 
1918-19 in the Bering Strait. Refitting 
his ship at Nome, he was disabled near 
Cape Serdze, Siberia, in 1920, and was 
again forced to return to Nome. Amund¬ 
sen began another Arctic voyage in 1922, 
and proceeded to Wain wright, but found 
conditions unfavorable, and decided to 
wait until May or June, 1923. 

Captain Amundsen now bears the honor 
of being the only navigator who has ex¬ 
plored the northern coasts of both Asia and 
America. He is the author of The North¬ 
west Passage and The South Pole. 

Amur, a-moor', a large river of east¬ 
ern Asia, emptying into the sea of Okhotsk. 
It ranks with the Volga, having a total 
length of about 1,500 miles. The territory 
drained by the Amur contains no less than 
600,000 square miles, surpassing in that 
respect the largest river basin of Europe. 
It consists of mountain ranges, immense 
and valuable forests, and extensive, fertile 
plains. The winters are severe. Fur¬ 
bearing animals and fish are abundant. 
The Russian portion of the valley is thinly 
populated. See Manchuria. 


Amy Robsart. See Scott; Kenil¬ 
worth. 

Anabaptists, in church history, the 
name given a sect which caused consider¬ 
able disturbance in' Germany, the Nether¬ 
lands, Switzerland, and other places during 
the period of the Reformation. The word 
signifies rebaptism, and had reference to 
the belief that infant baptism is not real 
or valid baptism. While this belief gave 
the sect its name, it was in reality the least 
important part of its system. Its members 
believed in the absolute equality of all 
Christians, in obeying the letter of biblical 
command, in personal revelation. Deny¬ 
ing the right of civil and ecclesiastical 
authority and advocating communism, they 
allied with themselves vast numbers of the 
pauper populace, as well as serfs suffering 
under serious oppression. From hating 
the established order, they soon grew to 
hate all order. The sect spread rapidly in 
spite of the united efforts of Roman Cath¬ 
olics, Protestants, and civil magistrates. 
The crisis came in the “Peasant War” in 
south Germany, 1525. The battle of 
Frankhausen crushed the sect in Saxony 
and Franconia. Miinzer, the Anabaptist 
leader, was put to death, with many of his 
followers who refused to recant. New 
associations were immediately formed; new 
leaders, Knipperdolling, Matthias, and 
Bockhold or Bockelson arose. Munster, in 
Westphalia, became the center of action. 
The established churches in this city were 
destroyed, the bishop expelled, all books 
but the Bible burned, and soon all sorts 
of excesses prevailed. The power of the 
Anabaptists was, however, of short dura¬ 
tion. Several Protestant princes joined 
forces with the bishop, and the city was 
taken in 1535. The leaders were killed, 
and their bodies hung up in iron cages 
which are still preserved at Munster. Thus 
the kingdom of New Zion, as it was called, 
came to an end. The name Anabaptist was 
proscribed and severe measures taken to 
prevent any revival of the sect. The doc¬ 
trines that gave the sect its name survived 
and the present Baptist church is doubtless 
an outgrowth of these views. Many other 
sects which reject infant baptism have been 
inaccurately classed with the Anabaptists, 


ANABASIS—ANACREON 


The name at the present time is very com¬ 
monly applied to the Mennonites. See 
Mennonites; Moravia; Baptists; 
Munster. . 

Anabasis, a-nab'a-sis, a literary name 
from the Greek, meaning literally a jour¬ 
ney upward. Xenophon’s Anabasis is an 
account of the unfortunate expedition of 
the younger Cyrus against his brother Ar- 
taxerxes, 401 B. C. It is written in a« 
simple style. It is the first Greek prose 
usually read in preparing for college. 
Xenophon was one of the commanders of 
a force of 10,000 Greeks, who started from 
the coast of Asia Minor in the spring of 
401 B. C. and marched as far as Cunaxa 
near Babylon, where Cyrus was killed and 
the Asiatic portion of his forces routed. 
The 10,000, however, held together in the 
face of a host of half a million Persians. 
After m&ny hardships they regained their 
native land. The retreat is one of the 
most famous in history. In celebrity it 
ranks with Napoleon’s retreat from Mos¬ 
cow. The expedition demonstrated the 
superiority of Greek discipline, and paved 
the way for the final conquest of Persia 
two generations later. See Xenophon. 

Anaconda, a huge water serpent of 
South America. It is allied to the boa 
constrictor, but is much larger. A speci¬ 
men in the New York Zoological Park 
measures eighteen feet six inches. A 
stuffed specimen in the British Museum is 
twenty-nine feet long. The boa is a tree 
climbing serpent; the anaconda lives in 
the rivers. It is found chiefly in the basins 
of the Orinoco and Amazon. The anacon* 
da is not venomous. Its usual food is the 
capybara, the tapir, and water birds. It 
is quite capable of making away with a 
deer, if it can catch one drinking at the 
water’s edge or attempting to swim a river. 
The term anaconda may be applied to any 
large snake that throws its folds about its 
prey and crushes it. See Python ; Boa 

Constrictor; Snakes. 

Anaconda, Mont., is the home of the 

largest copper smelting works in the world 
—the Washoe Reduction Works of the 
Anaconda Mining Company. These works 
have a daily capacity of between 10,000 
and 12,000 tons of the copper ore mined 


in the vicinity. The product comprises 10 
per cent of the world’s output of copper. 
Anaconda is 27 miles northwest of Butte. 
A small mining camp in 1880, it has de¬ 
veloped into a modern city, the county seat 
of Deer Lodge Co. It has parks, a fair 
grounds, the State Fish Hatchery and a 
Hearst Free Library of 6,000 volumes. 
The census of 1920 gave the population as 
11 , 668 . 

Anacreon, a-nak're-on, a famous Greek 
lyric poet. He was born at Teos, Asia 
Minor, about 562 B. C., and died about 
478 B. C., choked, Pliny tells us, by a 
grape seed. He was held in high esteem 
as a poet, both in his own age and in the 
ages that followed. Ancient writers 
call him “The Charming,” “The Honey- 
tongued,” “The Swan of Teos,” “The 
Glory of Ionia.” He was the author of 
many lyrics, and of satires as well. In 
the year 1554 Henry Stephens published 
a volume of Greek poems which purported 
to be the collected songs of Anacreon. 
They were translated into English by Cow¬ 
ley, Moore, and George Bourne. In mod¬ 
ern times critics agree that these lyrics 
are by writers of a later century, and that 
a few genuine fragments only are found 
among them. All, however, are after the 
manner of Anacreon, and compare favor¬ 
ably with the few genuine verses extant. 
Moreover, these “Anacreontic Odes,” 
whatever their authorship, are most grace¬ 
ful lyrics, ranking with the best of Greek 
poetry. They are chiefly in praise of love 
and wine. This fact has led both ancients 
and moderns to place an unjust estimate on 
the poet’s character. Indeed, the citizens 
of Teos, his own countrymen, placed his 
effigy on their coins, portraying a coarse 
and brutal face, worthy of Silenus. In 
Athens a statue erected in his honor repre¬ 
sented him as a drunken singer. 

The songs themselves, however, contain 
nothing that is coarse or sensual. “The 
love-poems might be recited in the most 
modest household, and the drinking-songs 
sung at the most decorous banquet.” It 
has been said of Anacreon that “he seems 
at least to have been sober when he wrote,” 
and in one fragment, the poet himself 
condemns intoxication as fit only for “bar- 


ANAEMIA—ANANIAS 


barians” and “Scythians.” In another song 
occur the lines: 

Let cheerful temperance rule the soul. 

The best ingredient in the bowl. 

The story runs that Anacreon was once 
charged with writing hymns to the reigning 
beauties of the day, instead of to the gods 
and goddesses. He made answer in these 
words, “But are not these also lesser di¬ 
vinities?” 

The word Anacreontic is used to desig¬ 
nate any short, sprightly song in praise of 
love or wine. 

PLEA FOR DRINKING. 

The Earth drinks up the genial rains. 

Which deluge all her thirsty plains; 

The lofty Trees that pierce the sky 
Drink up the earth and leave her dry; 

The insatiate Sea imbibes each hour 
The welcome breeze that brings the shower; 

The Sun, whose fires so fiercely burn, 

Absorbs the waves, and in her turn 
The modest Moon enjoys each night 
Large draughts of his celestial light. 

Then, sapient sirs, pray tell me why, 

If all things drink, why may not I? 

— Transl. of Bourne. 

ON HIS LYRE. 

While I sweep the sounding string, 

While the Atridae’s praise I sing— 

Victors on the Trojan plain— 

Or to Cadmus raise the strain, 

Hark, in soft and whispered sighs, 

Love’s sweet notes the shell replies. 

Late I strung my harp anew, 

Changed the strings—the subject too. 

Loud I sung Alcides’s toils; 

Still the lyre my labor foils; 

Still with Love’s sweet silver sounds 
Every martial theme confounds. 

Farewell, Heroes, Chiefs, and Kings! 
Naught but Love will suit my strings. 

— Transl. of Bourne. 

Anae'mia, meaning literally without 
blood, but generally signifying a diminu¬ 
tion in supply or a deterioration in quality. 
It may result from a diseased condition of 
the blood-making organs, but more often 
follows wasting diseases, as malaria, tuber¬ 
culosis or cancer, or from metallic poison¬ 
ing. Then it may also come from im¬ 
proper food, bad air or insufficient sun¬ 
light. If due to these latter causes, the 
remedy is apparent. 

Anaesthetic, in surgery, an agent used 
to produce unconsciousness during an op¬ 
eration. The anaesthetics used chiefly are 
chloroform, ether, and nitrous oxide or 


laughing gas. The use of anaesthetics 
may be said to date from 1800, when Sir 
Humphry Davy recommended the em¬ 
ployment of nitrous oxide to render pa¬ 
tients insensible to the pain of operation. 
Local anaesthetics like cocaine are used to 
produce numbness in cases of slight opera¬ 
tions. 

An increasing number of major opera¬ 
tions are performed under local anaes¬ 
thesia. For instance, an amputation, or 
exploratory incision into the abdomen, or 
the removal of cysts or tumors in various 
situations is frequently carried out under 
local anaesthesia. Cocaine is still largely 
used, especially for operations on the eyes 
and the interior of the nose. Various 
cocaine substitutes have been introduced, 
one of the best being novocaine. There 
are also various combinations of novo¬ 
caine with suprarenin, which are largely 
used in dental operations and spinal anaes¬ 
thesia. Stovaine, Tropacocaine, and Eu- 
caine are other valuable preparations that 
are often used in connection with adrenalin. 
See Surgery; Chloroform; Ether; 
Coca. 

Analogy, a form of reasoning which 
argues that because objects are alike in 
many known particulars, they are also alike 
in some other and unknown particular. 
An illustration of an argument by analogy 
is conveniently drawn from the earth and 
Mars. Both are planets; they revolve 
about the same sun; they have the same 
shape; each has an atmosphere; each has 
a regular succession of seasons. There is 
an apparent similarity of rainfall, tempera¬ 
ture, and the same succession of day and 
night. Now the earth sustains plant and 
animal life. Reasoning by analogy, it is 
urged that Mars is also clothed with vege¬ 
tation and is inhabited by animals and 
people. It may be seen readily that anal- 
ogy is likely to be exceedingly useful in 
stimulating investigation and in leading to 
discovery, but that it does not give abso¬ 
lute proof. The analogy seems to be per¬ 
fect and complete, yet no one knows 
whether or not Mars is inhabited. 

Ananias, an-an-I'as, in Bible history, 
a Jewish Christian at Jerusalem, who, with 
his wife, Sapphira, was struck dead for 


l 



ABDOMEN AND CHEST 




































ANARCHIST—ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY 


misrepresenting the amount of their gifts 
to the Apostle Peter, Acts v: 1-11. 

An'archist, one who professes to believe 
that rulers, and indeed all forms of gov¬ 
ernment, are an unnecessary evil. The 
word is from the Greek, meaning without 
rule. Socialists would have the government 
do more than it does now; but the anar¬ 
chists would abolish government and let 
each person enjoy the utmost freedom. 
The anarchist goes further. He holds that 
it is the inalienable right of each to rule 
himself without constraint from others. 
The anarchist looks upon government, not 
as a form of protection, but as a legalized 
scheme whereby the strong may plunder 
the weak. Under cover of law and govern¬ 
ment, so the anarchist claims, special privi¬ 
leges are granted to a few to the injury 
of the many. Two grievances may be given 
as illustrative of the wide range of com¬ 
plaint. By law a man may hold land he 
has no use for. By law a man may be 
compelled to go home or to a police sta¬ 
tion at eleven o’clock, when, as a matter 
of fact, he wants to stay all night in a 
saloon. Under the first law the rich man 
is protected unduly. Under the second 
law the poor man is harassed and oppressed 
unduly. For the policeman and the tax 
gatherer the anarchist would substitute ut¬ 
ter freedom from control. 

In a discussion of the topic it is impor¬ 
tant to distinguish between philosophical 
anarchists, who hold to the theory of no 
government, and violent anarchists, who 
would overthrow government by throwing 
dynamite. If all were minded to do the 
right thing it might be quite possible to do 
away with the police side of government; 
but there are so many enterprises, such as 
road making, supplying water, and trans¬ 
porting goods, that people can carry out to 
better advantage by working together, that 
there is still the need of cooperation, that is 
to say, of government. Our present form of 
government with its confessed inequalities 
and injustice is far better than no law save 
mob rule. Civilized people are giving at¬ 
tention to the problem of improving gov¬ 
ernment, not of abolishing it. 

See Socialism. 


Anat'omy, that branch of the study of 
organic bodies, both plants and animals, 
which deals with structure. The necessity 
of a knowledge of the human body by 
medical practicioners led to its early study, 
but mainly at first by the dissection of ani¬ 
mals. Records of human dissection have 
come down to us from before the time of 
Aristotle, though the practice did not be¬ 
come general in medical departments of 
universities till the sixteenth century. The 
beautifully illustrated book of Vesalius 
published at this time may be said to have 
laid the foundation of our modern anat¬ 


omy. From this time on the advances 
were rapid, some of the milestones along 
the way being William Harvey’s discovery 
of the circulation of the blood in 1628; the 
application of the microscope to human 
structures by Malpighi and Leeuwenhoeck; 
the founding of comparative anatomv by 
Cuvier at the opening of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury, and the beginning of histology or mi¬ 
croscopic anatomy by the celebrated Bichat. 
A knowledge of structure led naturally to 
its process of building, or embryology, by 
which the simple cell became the complex 
organism, and further to the microscopic 
anatomy of diseased conditions embraced 
under the name pathology. 

The vital organs of the chest and atj* 
domen are shown in the cut, the left-hand 
figure showing those in front, and the right- 
hand those in the back part of the cavity. 


KEY TO CUT. 


Left-Hand Figure. 

1 Trachea. 

2 Oesophagus. 

3 Bronchial Tubes. 

4 Right Lung. 

5 Left Lung. 

6 Heart. 

7 Right Lobe—Liver. 

8 Left Lobe—Liver. 

9 Gall Bladder. 

10 Stomach. 

11 Duodenum. 

12 Small Intestines. 

13 Appendix. 

14 Ascending Colon. 

15 Transverse Colon. 

16 Descending Colon. 

17 Pelvis. 

18 Peritoneum. 

19 Ribs. 

20 Costal Arch. 

21 Diaphragm. 

22 Pleura. 

23 Collar Bone. 


Right-Hand Figure. 

1 Trachea. 

2 Right Lung. 

3 Left Lung. 

4 Descending Vena Cava. 

5 Aorta. 

6 Pulmonary Artery. 

7 Pulmonary Veins 

8 Left Auricle—Hea s t. 

9 Left Ventricle— 

Heart. 

10 Right Ventricle- 

Heart. 

11 Right Auricle— 

Heart. 

12 Diaphragm. 

13 Ascending Vena Cava. 
14-15 Renal Capsules. 

16 Right Kidney. 

17 Left Kidney. 

18 Pancreas. 

19 Spleen. 

20 Stomach. 

21 Duodenum. 

22 Costal Arch. 

23-24 Ureters. 

25 Common Iliac Vein. 

26 Common Iliac 

Artery. 

27 Bladder. 


ANAXAGORAS—ANCESTOR WORSHIP 


Anatomy of Melancholy, by Robert 
Burton published in 1621. See Burton. 

QUOTATIONS. 

Naught so sweet as melancholy. 

Rob Peter, and pay Paul. 

Penny wise, pound foolish. 

What can’t be cured must be endured. 

Matches are made in heaven. 

Make a virtue of necessity. 

Anaxagoras, an-aks-ag'o-ras, a Gre¬ 
cian philosopher. He lived about 500-428 
B. C. He was born in Clazomenae, a city 
of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor. An¬ 
axagoras was a friend of Pericles, and a 
constant visitor in his home. He was an 
admirer of Aspasia. He taught the doc¬ 
trine that the ruling principle in the uni¬ 
verse was a world-ordering mind. “In the 
beginning all things were chaos. Then 
came intelligence and set all in order.” 
Pie inquired into the nature of comets, and 
tried to explain other natural phenomena. 
He held to the notion that the miraculous 
is simple enough and natural enough, if one 
can only get at the real facts in the case. 
Anaxagoras lived in Athens thirty years. 
Like Socrates, he was accused by his polit¬ 
ical opponents of impiety. He sought safe¬ 
ty in Lampsacus, where his death took 
place. Although, at first thought, the 
gropings of the old philosopher may seem 
elementary, as a matter of fact Anaxag¬ 
oras was a man of powerful mind, a leader 
of thought in an age of no little intellectu¬ 
ality. He was first of all an honest, de¬ 
termined investigator. 

AnaximaiTder of Miletus, a Greek 
philosopher. Born 611 B. C. Anaximan¬ 
der is celebrated for a work On Nature. 
His theory is interesting. He holds that 
the elementary contraries, warmth and cold, 
moisture and dryness, are derived from ele¬ 
mentary principles unknown in quality and 
limitless in quantity. Through motions 
and condensations innumerable worlds have 
sprung into existence, in the center of 
which the earth, a cylinder in form, re¬ 
mains motionless, while all the other heav¬ 
enly bodies revolve about it. According 
to this philosopher the earth was originally 
entirely fluid. As the water dried up, fishes 
made their appearance, and as part of 
the earth dried up, some of the fishes be¬ 
came land animals. 


Ancestor Worship, acts of veneration 

paid to the spirits of the dead. Ancestral 
worship may be of three kinds, the first 
being fundamental, the others growing out 
of it: 

1. Family worship of immediate ancestors, 

as parents and grandparents. 

2. Clan worship of a departed chief. 

3. National worship of an ancient ruler 

or rulers. 

Ancestral worship seems to be the ear¬ 
liest form of religious emotion. It is held 
to be the foundation of all civilized reli¬ 
gion, a stage through which all advanced 
religions must pass. It bears the same re¬ 
lation to religious thought, therefore, that 
the early ages of man bear to civilization. 
The nations of history were ancestor wor¬ 
shipers. The pre-Homeric Greeks, the 
inhabitants of ancient Mycenae, users of 
bronze and makers of pottery, buried their 
dead and worshiped them. The altars 
and ceremonial of the classic Greeks re¬ 
tained many traces of an earlier ancestral 
ritual. In connection with patriarchal 
government the ancient Romans developed 
an advanced type of ancestral worship. 
The Roman manes is the accepted word 
for ancestral deities. In order that the 
spirits might have a proper abiding place, 
and be propitiated, the Egyptians em¬ 
balmed the bodies of the dead with care, 
and showed them the highest honor. 

In all these nations, and among the 
Chaldeans, the Assyrians, and the Baby¬ 
lonians, as well, it was a part of proper 
burial to build an altar at the head of the 
tomb on which to place food, drink, and 
precious offerings. The worship of the 
Semitic, peoples, the Hebrews and the 
Arabs, as history knows them, is remark¬ 
ably free from ancestral deification; but 
the altar and its sacrifices, shewbread, and 
other ceremonials lead scholars to the con¬ 
clusion that these people prove no excep¬ 
tion to the general principle that all civi¬ 
lized nations have at one time practiced 
ancestor worship. The following passage 
quoted by Herbert Spencer from a German 
authority goes to show that the practice, 
often in a disguised form, still lingers in 
central Europe: 

Roman Catholic peasants do not forget all 


ANCESTOR WORSHIP 


the year round to care for the welfare of the 
souls of their dead. The crusts of the table are 
collected throughout the week, and on Saturday 
night are thrown into the hearth-fire, that they 
may serve as food for the souls during the 
following holy day. Any soup which drops on 
the table ... is left to the poor souls. When 
a woman prepares the dough, she casts behind 
her a handful of flour, and throws a piece of 
dough into the furnace; when she bakes little 
cakes, she puts some fat into the pan and the 
first cake into the fire. Wood-cutters put little 
pieces of bread which have become too dry, 
upon the tree trunks: all for the poor souls. 

. . . When the time of All Souls is approaching, 
the same care for the deceased is shown more 
vividly. _ In every house a light is kept burning 
all night; the lamp is no longer filled with oil 
but with fat; a door, or at least a window, 
remains open, and the supper is left on the ta¬ 
ble, even with some additions; people go to 
bed earlier,—all to let the dear little angels en¬ 
ter without being disturbed. . . . Such is the 
custom of the peasants of the Tyrol, Old Bava¬ 
ria, Upper Palatinate, and German Bohemia. 

The origin of ancestor worship is to be 
investigated, however, among more primi¬ 
tive people than those of history. The field 
of investigation is a wide one. Ancestral 
worship was, and is, practiced by the sav¬ 
age tribes of both Americas, of Africa, of 
Australia, and of Asia. It is doubtful 
whether there are any tribes so low in the 
scale of humanity as not to have notions 
of ghosts and the necessity of propitiating 
them. 

The foundation of ancestor worship is 
a belief, however shadowy, in ghosts; a 
belief that the ghost hovers about the body 
it once inhabited and that it has a disposi¬ 
tion and a power to help or to hinder for 
good or for evil, as in life, only more so. 
For this reason, call it abject fear, to be¬ 
gin with, the survivors treat the body of 
the dead, especially the body of one late 
in authority, as a father or a chief, with 
respect, make offerings of food and drink, 
employing the same arts to keep on the 
good side of the ghost that they did to 
secure the favor of the living. Veneration 
proceeding from affection and respect 
seems of later development. The earliest 
form of ancestral worship is the propitiat¬ 
ing of authority. In the earlier stages of 
his development, the savage believes that 
the spirits are as capricious, as loyal, as 
jealous, and as vindictive as he is. 

With the belief in ghosts, spirits, souls. 


manes of the fathers, is joined a belief in 
their activity and supernatural power. 
When good hunting and game scarcity, the 
speeding of an arrow and the failure to 
hit, victory in combat and disastrous am¬ 
bush, the rotting of seed in the ground and 
the sprouting of seed, rain and drouth, 
harvest and starvation, fat flocks and ani¬ 
mals dying of disease, health and pesti¬ 
lence, are not regarded as the outworkings 
of great and permanent forces of nature, 
but as the work of spirits once in the body, 
spirits good and spirits evil, spirits well 
disposed and spirits angered, it is not 
strange that propitiation of the dead should 
be the serious business of the living. In 
such a stage of thought no effort to please 
the dead is too great. Just where affection 
begins and fear leaves off, none can say. 
The Roman feared the omission of a single 
word or a mistake in a single gesture. The 
Egyptian even seated the mummy of his 
father at the table. 

Among the lower tribes the spirits of an¬ 
cestors were ever near at hand. The 
thought of a heaven and a hell, of an 
elysium for the souls of the just and a 
place of discomfort for the spirits of the 
unjust, is not primitive. The Indian, who 
provided game, pipe, bow, and arrows, 
that his father might have a prosperous 
passage to the happy hunting ground, is 
as far ahead of the Tasmanian in religious 
development as his bow and arrow are 
ahead of the rude tools of stone and shell 
used by the savage of the South Seas. As 
a general principle, we may assert that 
the more primitive a people, the greater 
their fear of ghosts, and the more abject 
their form of worship. As people advance, 
the belief in the active participation of the 
manes in life fades out. The worship of 
ancestry assumes more and more the form 
of affectionate remembrance. 

Far more than half of the inhabitants 
of the world now practice ancestry worship 
in one form or another. The most com¬ 
plete type is the household worship of the 
Japanese. The following passages are 
taken, with trifling modification, from 
Japan: An Interpretation, by Lafcadio 
Hearn: 

) 

There survive in the Japanese ancestor-cult 


ANCHISES—ANCHOR 


these three beliefs, which underlie all forms of 
persistent ancestor-worship in all climes and 
countries: 

1. The dead remain in this world,—haunting 

their tombs, and also their former homes, 
and sharing invisibly in the life of their 
living descendants. 

2. All the dead become gods, in the sense of ac¬ 

quiring supernatural power; but they re¬ 
tain the characters which distinguished them 
during life. 

3. The happinesss of the dead depends upon 

the respectful service rendered them by the 
living; and the happiness of the living de¬ 
pends upon the fufilment of pious duty to 
the dead. 

These beliefs, in modified form, are yet a 
fundamental part of the existing cult. In every 
home, there is a shrine devoted to it. This shrine, 
a tiny model of a Shinto Temple, is placed on 
a shelf fixed against the wall of an inner cham¬ 
ber at a height of about six feet from the floor. 
Such a shelf is called a “Shelf of the August 
Spirits.” In the shrine are placed thin tablets 
of white wood inscribed with the names of the 
household dead. Such tablets are called “spirit- 
sticks.” The number of mortuary tablets in a 
household shrine does not generally exceed five or 
six,—only grandparents and parents and the re¬ 
cently dead being thus represented ; but the names 
of remoter ancestors are inscribed upon scrolls, 
which are kept in the Butsudan or the mitamaya. 

Whatever be the family rite, prayers are re¬ 
peated and offerings are placed before the an¬ 
cestral tablets every day. The nature of the 
offerings and the character of the prayers de¬ 
pend upon the religion of the household; but 
the essential duties of the cult are everywhere 
the same. These duties are not to be neglected 
under any circumstances: their performance in 
these times is usually intrusted to the elders, or 
to the women of the household. There is no 
long ceremony, no imperative rule about prayers, 
nothing solemn: the food-offerings are selected 
out of the family cooking; the murmured or 
whispered invocations are short and few. But, 
trifling as the rites may seem, their perform¬ 
ance must never be overlooked. Not to make 
the offerings is a possibility undreamed of: so 
long as the family exists they must be made. 
It should be recognized that no religion is more 
sincere, no faith more touching than this do¬ 
mestic worship, which regards the dead as con¬ 
tinuing to form a part of the household life, 
and needing still the affection and the respect 
of their children and kindred. Originating in 
those dim ages when fear was stronger than 
love,—when the wish to please the ghosts of 
the departed must have been chiefly inspired by 
dread of their anger,—the cult at last developed 
into a religion of affection; and this it yet re¬ 
mains. Ihe belief that the dead need affection, 
that to neglect them is a cruelty, that their 
happiness depends upon duty, is a belief that 
has almost cast out the primitive fear of their 


displeasure. They are not thought of as dead: 
they are believed to remain among those who 
loved them. Unseen they guard the home, and 
watch over the welfare of its inmates: they 
hover nightly in the glow of the shrine-lamp; 
and the stirring of its flame is the motion of 
them. They dwell mostly within their lettered 
tablets;—sometimes they can animate a tablet,— 
change it into the substance of a human body, 
and return in that body to active life, in order 
to succour and console. From their shrine they 
observe and hear what happens in the house; 
they share the family joys and sorrows; they 
delight in the voices and the warmth of the life 
about them. They want affection; but the morn¬ 
ing and the evening greetings of the family 
are enough to make them happy. They require 
nourishment; but the vapour of food contents 
them. They are exacting only as regards the 
daily fulfilment of duty. They were the givers 
of life, the givers of wealth, the makers and 
teachers of the present: they represent the past 
of the race, and all its sacrifices;—whatever 
the living possess is from them. Yet how little 
do they require in return! Scarcely more than 
to be thanked, as the founders and guardians 
of the home, in simple words like these : “ For 
aid received, by day and by night, accept, Au¬ 
gust Ones, our reverential gratitude ... To 
forget or neglect them with rude indifference, 
is the proof of an evil heart; to cause them 
shame by ill-conduct, to disgrace their name 
by bad actions, is the supreme crime. They rep¬ 
resent the moral experience of the race: who¬ 
soever denies that experience denies them also, 
and falls to the level of the beast, or below it. 
They represent the unwritten law, the tradi¬ 
tions of the commune, the duties of all to all: 
whosoever offends against these, sins against the 
dead. And, finally, they represent the mystery 
of the invisible: to Shinto belief, at least, they 
are gods. 

Anchises, an-kLsez, in Greek legend, a 
prince of the royal house of Iroy, and fa¬ 
ther, by Aphrodite, of Aeneas. He boasted 
of the favoritism of Aphrodite for himself, 
and, as a punishment, was struck blind! 
Aeneas carried Anchises on his shoulders 
from 1 roy while the city was burning. 

Anchor, a heavy drag attached to a ca¬ 
ble and thrown overboard to hold a ship 
from drifting. I he first anchor was, no 
doubt, some rude weight, such as a stone; 
but the modern anchor is a heavy specimen 
of the blacksmith s art, combining several 
features suggested by centuries of ex¬ 
perience. Lloyds, the London marine in¬ 
surance association, prescribes not only the 
number but the weight of the various an¬ 
chors to be carried by ships according to 
their tonnage. They are called stern, sheet, 


ANCHORITES 


and bower anchors, according to the part 
of the ship in which each is stored. The 
right bower is kept at the right side of the 
bow ; a sheet anchor near the middle of 
the ship, and so on. A ship of 100 
tons is expected to carry four anchors, 
the bowers weighing four hundredweight 
each. A ship of 3,000 tons is supposed to 
have seven anchors, the bowers weighing 
4,500 pounds each, and so on. A sailing 
ship requires more in the way of anchors 
than is necessary for a steamship. A mod¬ 
ern ironclad carries two bower, two sheet, 
two kedge, one stream, and one stern an¬ 
chor. The kedge anchors are designed for 
use in warping the ship from one place to 
another. The cables are now almost uni¬ 
versally iron chains with short links made 
with care of the best material. 

A number of nautical terms are interest¬ 
ing. To cast or drop anchor is to lower 
it into the water. If the anchor stands 
on end without falling over, it is said to 
be a-peak. If it drags on the bottom with¬ 
out catching, it is said to come home. To 
weigh anchor is to draw it up out of the 
water. An anchor is fouled when it be¬ 
comes entangled in its cable. A ship rides 
at anchor when its anchors hold it in po¬ 
sition. In many harbors anchors are fas¬ 
tened permanently to the bottom, as in a 
ledge of rock, or they are made with a 
peculiar corkscrew shape and twisted into 
the mud. One end of a short cable is 
fastened to the anchor, the other is held 
at the surface by a buoy. When a ship 
ties up to a buoy of this sort, it is said to 
be moored. 

An anchor is essentially a heavy hook 
that catches on the bottom when dragged. 
The best shape has been a subject of con¬ 
troversy for a long time. The most ap¬ 
proved form consists of a shank terminat¬ 
ing at one end in a ring for the cable. A 
curved crosspiece is fastened in a slot at 
the other end, in such a way that it is able 
to turn a short distance on a piVot. The 
arms end in broad, pointed, shovel-like 
palms called flukes. When either fluke 
catches in the bottom of the sea the cross¬ 
piece turns on its pivot until the other fluke 
comes against the shank, leaving no chance 
for the cable to foul. In order to prevent 


the anchor from falling sidewise so that 
neither fluke will catch, the ring end of the 
shank is fitted with a second crosspiece 
called a stock. The stock extends in a 
direction at right angles to that of the 
arms. When the anchor is cast, it is sure 
to tip over in such a way that the shank 
and stock lie flat, and turn one fluke or the 
other downward, so that it will catch and 
prevent the anchor from dragging. Good 
anchorage should be deep enough so that 
ships may pass above an anchor without 
injury, hard enough so that the anchor 
will not drag, and yet not too stony, lest 
the flukes be broken off in crevices of the 
rock. The parts of an anchor are made 
Usually of a number of bars welded to¬ 
gether. It was considered formerly a very 
difficult piece of blacksmithing to make an 
anchor, but they are forged now by steam 
hammers. 

An anchor is weighed by winding up its 
cable on a cylinder, called a capstan. For¬ 
merly the capstan was turned by the sailors, 
who thrust their handspikes into its head 
and followed each other round and round 
in a circle, singing merry songs. In well 
equipped ships this work is now done by 
a small engine for the purpose. The 
stock is constructed usually so that it may 
be withdrawn on shipboard, with a view 
to stowing the anchor in a smaller space. 

Anchorites, hermits; persons who 
withdraw from society. The exact time of 
the origin of this practice is questionable, 
but it probably came about as a result of 
the idea that all sorts of bodily privations, 
such as going without food, dressing in 
painful clothing, and scourging one’s self 
with whips, were acceptable in the sight 
of God and merited salvation. Monks be¬ 
lieved in withdrawing from general so¬ 
ciety and denied themselves many of the 
pleasures of life, that they might have 
the more time for meditation and good 
works; the anchorites went a step farther, 
they withdrew themselves from society al¬ 
together. In the warm region around the 
eastern end of the Mediterranean they 
betook themselves to inaccessible deserts, 
caves, or other deep solitudes, and lived 
on the roughest sort of fare. Now and 
then an anchorite acquired a reputation 


ANCHOVY—ANDERSEN 


for sanctity and was visited by sorrowing 
and sin-laden people, who made him a 
sort of father confessor, upon whom they 
might lay their burdens. The pillar 
saints were a set of anchorites who sought 
solitude by remaining on the top of pillars. 
One of the most remarkable, Simeon Sty- 
lites, remained in a cell in his monastery 
for nine years. He then withdrew to a 
pillar a yard in diameter about forty miles 
from Antioch, on the top of which he 
took up his position, removing every few 
years to a still higher pillar, until at last 
he remained day and night in all kinds 
of weather on the top of a pillar sixty 
feet high. His neck was loaded with iron 
chains; his lips moved in constant prayer; 
his body was bowed as though wrestling 
in agony for the forgiveness of sins. Fre¬ 
quently, it is said, he went without food 
for an entire week. His reputation for 
sanctity brought crowds of pilgrims who 
hoped to derive benefit from his prayers 
or even by touching the pillar on which 
so holy a man stood. After living this 
life for thirty-seven years, he died in 460, 
at the age of seventy-two. Many other 
pillar saints were scarcely less noted. See 
Monks. 

The fertile and peaceable lowlands of Eng¬ 
land . . . offered few spots sufficiently wild 
and lonely for the habitation of a hermit; 
those, therefore, who wished to retire from the 
world into a more strict and solitary life than 
that which the monastery afforded were in the 
habit of immuring themselves, as anchorites, 
or in old English “Ankers,” in little cells of 
stone, built usually against the wall of a church. 
There is nothing new under the sun; and simi¬ 
lar anchorites might have been seen in Egypt, 
500 years before the time of St. Anthony, im¬ 
mured in cells in the temples of Isis or Sera- 
pis. It is only recently that antiquarians have 
discovered how common this practice was in 
England, and how frequently the traces of these 
cells are to be found about our parish churches. 
—C. Kingsley, The Hermits . 

Anchovy, a small, silvery fish, four to 
five inches long, resembling the herring, 
the shad, the sprat, and the sardine. An¬ 
chovies have pointed heads and projecting 
upper jaws. In early summer shoals visit 
the shores of southern Europe to spawn. 
Immense numbers are taken with nets in 
the Mediterranean Sea. The fishermen 
toil at night, using bright headlights to 


attract the fish. The fish are salted and 
dried for winter use, or else pickled in 
small barrels for the export trade. Treated 
with vinegar they dissolve into what is 
known as anchovy sauce. 

Ancient Mariner, The Rime of the, 
a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, pub¬ 
lished in 1798. It is Coleridge’s master¬ 
piece and is probably the finest specimen 
of artistic ballad poetry in the language. 
See Coleridge. 

Ancient Order of United Workmen, 

a fraternal, benevolent organization. The 
parent lodge was formed at Meadville, 
Pennsylvania, in 1868. The fundamental 
idea of the order is mutual helpfulness. 
Life insurance, conducted on the assess¬ 
ment plan, is an important feature. The 
family of the deceased member receives 
up to $2,000 a year. There are now 40 
grand lodges, 4,500 sub-lodges, with a 
membership exceeding 400,000. The order 
has paid out in the neighborhood of 
$2,000,000 in benefits. The highest gov¬ 
erning body of the organization is the 
“supreme lodge.” This controls the grand, 
or state, lodges, which, in turn, have a 
supervisory relation to the local lodges. 

Andersen, Hans Christian (1805- 
1875), a Danish writer. He is known as 
a poet and a novelist of no mean ability, 
but his fame rests on the volumes of fairy 
tales, which, like Dickens’ Christmas sto¬ 
ries, appeared from year to year in the 
holiday season. His stories of fir trees, 
storks, fairies, swans, witches, princes and 
princesses, soldiers, nightingales, flowers, 
and Christmas trees, gathered from the 
peasantry and dressed in the simplest lan¬ 
guage, are the delight of young readers 
in all lands. Andersen’s old age was passed 
peacefully in Copenhagen, but his child¬ 
hood was far from pleasant. He learned 
to read and write in a charity school. At 
the age of nine he went to work in a 
factory to earn something for the assist¬ 
ance of his widowed mother. He was an 
eager reader of the national ballads and 
popular poetry. In time he attracted the 
attention of a gentleman in public posi¬ 
tion, who placed him in a government 
school. From this he made his way 
through the university. Later in life hs 


ANDERSON—ANDES 


received a royal pension, which gave him 
an opportunity to travel in Italy and else¬ 
where. His writings include, besides the 
Fairy Tales, Picture-books without Pic¬ 
tures, Only a Fiddler, A Poet’s Bazaar, 
My Life’s Rdmance, The Ice Maiden, and 
Tales from Jutland. 

Anderson, Mary (1859-), an Ameri¬ 
can actress. Her full name is Mrs. 
Marie Antoinette Anderson Navarro, but 
during her career on the stage she was 
called Mary Anderson, and although the 
name is a common one it will never be any¬ 
thing but most distinctive to those who 
have had the pleasure of seeing this gifted 
woman. She was born at Sacramento, 
California. Her father, General Ander¬ 
son, was killed in the Civil War. The 
mother moved to Louisville, Kentucky, 
where the little girl was educated. When 
only thirteen years old she decided that 
she would become an actress, and had soon 
the good fortune to make the acquaintance 
of Charlotte Cushman, by whose advice 
she studied for the stage. She first ap¬ 
peared in the role of Juliet and won in¬ 
stant success. She was at this time but 
sixteen years of age, but in a few years was 
acknowledged to be the leading actress of 
the United States. Her popularity in¬ 
creased until she left the stage ii* 1889 
upon marrying Mr. Navarro, whose full 
name is Antonio Navarro de Viana. They 
have made their home in England. Mary 
Anderson was something more than a 
gifted actress, she was a beautiful and 
noble woman. She kept her atmosphere 
pure and uplifting, and did much to de¬ 
stroy the prejudice fell, by many right 
minded people against the stage, for she 
proved that an actress may live a pure 
and noble life and that the theater may not 
only amuse but instruct end elevate. 

In 1896 Mrs. Navarro published a vol¬ 
ume of reminiscences, A Few Memories. 

Andersonville Prison, a Confederate 
States military prison for captured Fed¬ 
eral soldiers during the Civil War. It 
was located at Andersonville, Georgia. 
The prison was notorious for unhealth- 
fulness and the severity of discipline main¬ 
tained. From February 15, 1864, to 

April, 1865, prisoners were received to 


the number of 49,485. Of these, 12,926 
died from various diseases. The prisoners 
were confined in a space of about ten 
acres, without shelter from the sun, and 
with insufficient food and polluted water. 
The Confederates were short of money, 
clothing, food, and medicine for their own 
sick, not to say short of supplies for their 
men In the field. No one at this date 
desires to say aught against the kindness 
and hospitality of the South, but the man¬ 
agement of Andersonville was execrable. 

Anderson, Ind., a manufacturing city, 
situated on White River, a water power 
stream, 36 miles northeast of Indianapolis. 
Here was established one of the first and 
largest tin plate mills in the United States. 
Chief among Anderson manufactures are 
automobiles, magnetoes and self-starters 
for automobiles, oil and gas engines, street 
cars and steel springs. The city contains 
13 public school buildings, including a 
manual training high school. Besides 
these, there are 6 parochial schools and 2 
business colleges. The revenue from the 
municipally owned water works and elec¬ 
tric light plant has enabled the city to dis¬ 
charge its debts. Population, 1920, 29,767. 

Andes, the principal mountain system 
of South America. On the theory that a 
range of mountains is a wrinkle in the 
earth’s crust, the Andes and the Rocky 
Mountains do not seem to be parts of the 
same great fold. Although intervening 
mountains connect the two systems, the 
southern extension of the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains sinks into the Pacific westward of 
South America. The general direction of 
the Andes, the countries traversed, and 
the table-lands inclosed, may be seen at 
a glance at the map. In height and ex¬ 
tent the Andean system is second only to 
the Himalayas. In mass it may be com¬ 
pared with a huge embankment about 
4,400 miles in length, having a width of 
from 20 to 250 miles., and an average 
height of nearly 2 l A miles. The total bulk 
may be represented in cubic feet by the fig¬ 
ure five followed by fifteen ciphers—a mass 
about equivalent to the silt that at its 
present rate would be carried downstream 
by the Mississippi in three-fourths of a 
million years. If all the rivers of the 


ANDIRON—ANDOVER 


world were to play on the Andes, they 
would require 135,000 years to sweep the 
mountains away; yet, as compared with 
the bulk of the earth, the entire range is 
but a blade of grass resting on a water¬ 
melon. For a great part of the length 
the Andes are a broad embankment from 
6,000 to 11,000 feet high, with a ridge 
of peaks rising still higher, like battle¬ 
ments along either edge. Along the top 
of the embankment, and between these 
border walls, are the great upland plains 
or valleys in which, at their greatest ex¬ 
pansion, Pizarro discovered an ancient civ¬ 
ilization and effected the conquest of Peru. 
Bolivia and Peru border here. 

The highest peak, not only of the Andes 
but of the New World, and the loftiest 
volcano in the world is Mt. Aconcagua, 
23,080 feet above the sea. At the lati¬ 
tude of Lake Titicaca, one of the largest 
elevated lakes in the world, the Andean 
system is at its widest. Toward the north 
the border ranges approach and knot to¬ 
gether in the vicinity of Quito, one of the 
most intensely active volcanic regions of 
the globe. Cotopaxi and Chimborazo are 
here. The equator here crosses an extinct 
volcano 19,534 feet above the sea. This 
is the greatest height attained by the equa¬ 
tor in its entire course, and is the only 
region where the equator passes through 
perpetual ice and snow. By glancing at 
a map of South America it may be seen 
that from this knot the mountain ranges 
radiate like a fan through Colombia. At 
its southern termination the Andean sys¬ 
tem runs along the water’s edge in a sin¬ 
gle high ridge, about twenty miles wide, 
to Cape Horn, though much broken by 
arms of the sea. The Strait of Magellan 
cuts off Tierra del Fuego altogether. 

Andiron, an iron bar supported on 
three feet. A pair of andirons stood in 
every old-fashioned fireplace or open 
hearth to hold the burning logs of wood. 
The outer ends of the bars were turned 
upward to prevent the wood from rolling 
outward. Ordinarily they were plain iron 
bars shaped by the village blacksmith, 
but they were fashioned, not infrequently, 
with artistic care, the upright ends termi¬ 
nating in knobs, sheathed in brass or sil¬ 


ver. Irving speaks of the care which the 
good Dutch housewives bestowed on the 
knobs of their andirons to keep them pol¬ 
ished. See Heating. 

And, for the winter fireside meet, 

Between the andirons’ straddling feet. 

The mug of cider simmered slow, 

The apples sputtered in a row, 

And, close at hand, the basket stood 
With nuts from brown October’s wood. 

—Whittier, Snowbound. 

Andorra, an-dor'ra, a mountain re¬ 
public on the border line between France 
and Spain. It may be reached from 
France by a small river; from Spain by 
a dangerous mule path. It has an area 
of 175 square miles, and a population 
(1909) of 5,231. It is governed by a 
council of twenty-four members elected for 
four years bv the heads of families in each 
parish. It is surrounded by high mountains, 
and has rich mines of lead and iron. The 
inhabitants are hospitable and industrious, 
and are engaged largely in farming and 
cattle raising. Andorra has been inde¬ 
pendent since the time of Charlemagne, 
although France and a Spanish bishop 
exercise a sort of joint protectorship. The 
customs and institutions have in many re¬ 
spects remained unchanged for centuries. 
They have been made the subject of study 
by a jiumber of scholars and historians. 
The country has no written laws. The 
people are Catholics and speak the French 
language. There were originally a great 
number of these small states in medieval 
Europe. Andorra and one or two others 
are all that survive. The rest were ab¬ 
sorbed by the larger states. It is claimed 
that descendants of petty German princes 
may be found driving street cars in Berlin. 

Andover, Massachusetts, a town of 
Essex County, first settled in 1643. It 
was named for Andover, England, a mar¬ 
ket town in the vicinity of Winchester. It 
is a thriving town of about 7,500 inhabit¬ 
ants. It is noted for Phillips Academy, 
a strongly endowed school for boys. The 
academy has long maintained a reputation 
for scholarship, and is known usually as 
“Phillips Andover” to distinguish it from 
a similar school of the same name at Exe¬ 
ter, New Hampshire. The town is noted 
also as the seat of Andover Theological 


ANDRE—ANDREE 


Seminary, founded in 1807, a Congrega¬ 
tional school, recently moved to Harvard 
University. The question of modifying the 
theological doctrines taught has given rise, 
at one time or another, to the famous 
‘‘Andover Controversies.” Successive 
generations have struggled, each to secure 
the acceptance of its views by the preced¬ 
ing generation, and then a few decades 
later taking the defensive against the 
younger men who were coming on. The 
town has several factories and a fine pub¬ 
lic library of over 12,000 volumes. Har¬ 
riet Beecher Stowe lived here for a num¬ 
ber of years, while her husband, Dr. 
Stowe, was professor of sacred literature 
in the Seminary. 

Andre, an'dra, Major John (1751- 

1780), a British soldier. He was born of 
Swiss-French parentage in London, 1751, 
and was executed as a spy at Tappan, 
New York, October 2, 1780. He was an 
accomplished musician. He wrote face¬ 
tious poems, arranged plays, and was a 
universal favorite with his fellow officers. 
When Benedict Arnold, in command of 
West Point, wras meditating the surrender 
of that important fortress to the British, 
Andre, then Clinton’s adjutant-general, 
was sent up the Hudson in a ship to ar¬ 
range the details with Arnold. He en¬ 
tered West Point under a flag of truce. 
His ship, being fired upon by an Ameri¬ 
can fort, dropped down the river, and An¬ 
dre was obliged to return to New York 
by land. Arnold provided him with pass¬ 
ports which carried him beyond the Ameri¬ 
can lines. At Tarrytown, almost in sight 
of the British outposts, he was seized by 
three prowling American militiamen. He 
offered them a large sum to let him go free, 
but finding Arnold’s traitorous dispatches 
in Andre’s boots, they carried him to an 
American commander. The disguise and 
the traitorous correspondence left no 
doubt whatever that Andre was engaged 
in forwarding Arnold’s infamous business. 
He was sent before a court-martial and 
was condemned to be hanged as a spy. His 
youth, popular ways, and influential fami¬ 
ly connections, were urged in vain. Wash¬ 
ington offered, indeed, to exchange him 
for the traitor, Arnold, who had fled to 


the British. This Clinton refused. Wash¬ 
ington felt that Andre must be executed 
as a warning. Finding that there was no 
hope, Andre met his fate with firmness. 
He asked as a last favor that he be per¬ 
mitted to die the death of a soldier, to 
be shot, instead of hanged, but his re¬ 
quest could not be granted. Andre was 
buried at the foot of the gallows. In 
1821 his remains were conveyed to Eng¬ 
land and deposited in Westminster Abbey. 
A memorial tablet, a sarcophagus with 
Britannia weeping, may be seen in the 
south aisle. Historical justice requires 
the statement that, had Andre escaped 
capture, his memory would have been 
linked with the infamy of Arnold; but 
the circumstances of his execution, though 
in accordance with the stern necessity of 
war, aroused the world’s sympathy to such 
an extent that he is regarded almost as 
a martyr. To Andre’s captors, John 
Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van 
Wert, Congress gave a pension of $200 
a year and a silver medal. In 1853 a 
monument to their memory was erected 
at the place of capture. See Arnold. 

Andree, Salomon Auguste (1854-), a 
Swedish scientist. Born in Grenna, Octo¬ 
ber 18, 1854. He received a thorough tech¬ 
nical education, and was a professor in the 
University of Stockholm from 1886 to 
1889. In 1892 the Swedish Academy of 
Sciences made him a special grant for the 
purpose of experimenting in aerial navi¬ 
gation. In 1895 he laid before the acade¬ 
my a plan for seeking the north pole by 
means of a balloon. A grant of $40,000 
was raised at once by popular subscription. 
He constructed an immense balloon sixty- 
seven feet in diameter, with a capacity 
of 170,000 cubic feet. July 11, 1897, 
Andree started north from Dane’s Island, 
Spitzbergen, with two companions. While 
in sight, his balloon traveled at from 
twelve to fifteen miles an hour, which 
should have brought him to the pole in 
about six days. Two days after he left, 
a carrier pigeon returned with a message 
to the effect that at noon, July 13th, the 
daring navigators were in latitude 82.2°, 
longitude 15.5° east, and were making ex¬ 
cellent progress. 


ANDREW—ANDROMACHE 


In their balloon were 13 buoys, which 
were to be dropped at intervals. Five 
came ashore at Spitzbergen, but the bodies 
of Andree and the others were never found. 

Andrew, Saint, one of the twelve apos¬ 
tles. He was noted for good sense .and 
a meditative disposition. The principal 
allusions to Andrew are John i: 40; John 
vi: 8; John xii: 22; Mark xiii: 3. Tra¬ 
dition has it that he preached the gospel 
in the countries north of Greece, and that 
he suffered martyrdom on the cross. The 
Russians consider him the founder of their 
church. St. Andrew is the tutelary saint 
of Scotland, as are St. George for Eng¬ 
land and St. Patrick for Ireland. Saint 
Andrew’s day, November 30, is observed 
in the Roman, Greek, and Anglican 
churches. The silver cross of St. Andrew, 
carried by the Scots to battle, had the form 
of the letter X on a blue ground. Saint 
Andrews, a city in Fifeshire, is noted as 
the seat of a Scottish university and as a 
center of the manufacture of golf clubs 
and balls. 

Andrews, Elisha Benjamin (1844- 

1917), an American educator and college 
president, was born at Hinsdale, New 
Hampshire. During the Civil War he 
served in the Union Army and rose to the 
rank of second lieutenant. After the war 
he was graduated from Brown University, 
Providence, Rhode Island, and continued 
his studies at Newton Theological Insti¬ 
tute. He was appointed professor of his¬ 
tory and political economy and finance at 
Cornell, and later was made president of 
Brown University, which institution de¬ 
veloped rapidly under his administration. 
Dr. Andrews was superintendent of the 
Chicago public schools for two years, and 
in 1900 accepted the position of chancellor 
of Nebraska University, from which he re¬ 
tired in 1909. He was the author of sev¬ 
eral books on history and economics; 
among them A History of the United 
States in Oar Own Times, An Honest 
Dollar, Wealth and Moral Law . 

Androcles, an'dro-cles, or Androclus, 
a Roman slave whose story is told by 
Aldus Gellius, a Latin author, who lived 
and wrote in Athens in the latter half of 
the second century. Gellius’ work Nodes 


Atticae contains many anecdotes, some of 
which are more interesting than authentic. 
They have little value as literature, but 
have aided in settling some debated ques¬ 
tions concerning ancient history and litera¬ 
ture. Gellius’ account of Androcles is a 
pleasant tale. He ran away from his 
master and sought freedom in Africa. He 
once entered a cave to seek shelter and 
found therein a lame lion. Man and beast 
seemed to have no fear of each other and 
presently the lion offered his foot for in¬ 
spection. Androcles found it pierced with 
a sharp thorn which he carefully removed, 
and then in gratitude the lion brought An¬ 
drocles food as long as the Roman remained 
in the region. The runaway slave was cap¬ 
tured, however, and taken back to Rome. 
Here according to custom he was con¬ 
demned to fight with a lion in the amphi¬ 
theater. The lion had been long kept with¬ 
out food to increase its ferocity, but as soon 
as he sprang into the amphitheater he rec¬ 
ognized Androcles and instead of attacking 
him he fawned at *his feet and licked his 
hand. The wonder of the spectators de¬ 
manded an explanation. The story was told, 
Androcles was pardoned, and both man and 
lion set at liberty. 

Andromache, an-drom'a-ke, in Greek 
legend, the wife of Hector of Troy. She 
is one of the finest female characters in 
Greek literature. She was a daughter of 
the king of Thebes, and suffered much at 
the hands of Achilles. During her child¬ 
hood he slew her father and seven broth¬ 
ers. During the siege of Troy he slew 
Hector. After the siege of Troy she 
passed into the possession of Pyrrhus, the 
son of Achilles, w r ho, however, bestowed 
her in marriage on Helenus, a brother of 
her dead husband. As his wife she ap¬ 
pears in Virgil’s Aeneid. Andromache’s 
grief for her dead husband, Hector, is 
the theme of one of the finest passages in 
Homer’s Iliad . The following is from the 
translation by Alexander Pope: 

First to the corse the weeping consort flew; 
Around his neck her milk-white arms she threw, 
‘‘And oh, my Hector! Oh, my lord!” she cries! 
“Snatch’d in thy bloom from these desiring eyes! 

1 hou to the dismal realms forever gone ! 

And I abandon’d, desolate, alone! . . . 

Why gav’st thou not to me thy dying hand? 


ANDROMEDA—ANGELICO 


And why receiv’d not I thy last command? 
Some word thou would’st have spoke, which, 
sadly dear, 

My soul might keep, or utter with a tear; 

Which never, never could be lost in air, 

Fix’d in heart and oft repeated there!” 

See Euripides. 

Andromeda, an-drom'e-da, in my¬ 
thology, the daughter of Cepheus and Cas¬ 
siopeia, monarchs of Ethiopia. She was 
bound to a rock as an offering to a de¬ 
stroying monster that was ravishing the 
land, and w'as rescued by Perseus. After 
death she was placed in the sky as a con¬ 
stellation, where she is now surrounded 
by her husband, mother, Pegasus, and 
other demigods. The name has been giv¬ 
en to a genus of shrubs belonging to the 
heath family. The stagger bush of North 
America, so called from the effects of its 
leaves when eaten by sheep, is an Androm¬ 
eda. See Cassiopeia; Perseus. 

Andros, Sir Edmund (1637-1714), 
an English governor of American colonies. 
He became governor of the colony of New 
York in 1674, which position he filled for 
eight years. Although he displayed con¬ 
siderable ability and was honest and up¬ 
right, his rule was severe. He gave little 
heed to the wishes of the colonists, and was 
finally removed by reason of political quar¬ 
rels. In 1686 he was made governor of 
New England, at that time one province. 
Here the characteristics which had made 
him disliked developed into actual tyranny, 
and he held the position but three years. 
It was during this time that he undertook 
the well-known expedition to Hartford, 
which made the “Charter Oak” historic. 
Later Andros was made governor of Vir¬ 
ginia, where he served wisely and justly 
for six years. See Charter Oak; Hart¬ 
ford. 

Anemom'eter, (Gr. anemos, wind, and 
meter, measure), a scientific instrument for 
measuring the velocity of wind. The 
kind in use by the United States Weather 
Bureau consists of four hemispherical 
cups facing in the same circular direction 
at the ends of horizontal arms or spokes 
of a light wheel. The wind catches with 
more force in the opening or concave face 
of the cup at one end of a diameter than 
on the bottom or convex face of the cup 


at the other end of the same diameter, thus 
causing the wheel to rotate continuously 
in the same direction. The higher the 
wind, the faster the wheel turns. A sys¬ 
tem of clock w r ork shows the number of 
rotations per minute, from which the ve¬ 
locity of the wind is computed readily. It 
is interesting to know that the inequality 
of wind pressure on the opposing pair of 
cups results in a rotary speed of from one- 
fourth to one-third of the velocity of the 
wind. Another anemometer consists of a 
lightly rotating, delicate wheel, each spoke 
of which is a flat blade set obliquely like 
the sail of a windmill. Such an instru¬ 
ment is held in the hand and is used chief¬ 
ly by engineers and architects to measure 
the rate of air currents in mines or in ven¬ 
tilating shafts. 

Anemone, a-nem'o-ne, a genus of 
plants belonging to the buttercup family. 
The name is Grecian, signifying wind. 
In Grecian mythology the anemone was 
said to have sprung from drops of blood 
from the foot of Venus who had stepped 
on a sharp thorn. There are many anemo¬ 
nes or windflowers. Some of them have 
become beautiful inmates of the flower 
garden. Anemones are without petals, 
but have a colored calyx that looks like 
a corolla. The sepals can hardly be told 
from petals. Our windflower comes early 
in the spring and is often called the wood 
anemone. It is found everywhere in our 
hardwood region. Another anemone, 
the pasque flower, with its purplish sepals 
and silky involucre, is the earliest flower 
of the prairies from Illinois and Missouri 
far to the north and westward. The seeds 
have long feathery tails. Other anemones, 
coming in the summer, ripen cylindrical 
heads of cottony seeds. See Aconite; 
Buttercup; Larkspur. 

Aneroid Barometer. See Barome¬ 
ter. 

Angelico, an-jel'e-k5, Fra (1387-1455), 
a famous Italian painter. The full name 
given him in his own time was II Beato 
Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, which being 
translated is “The Beautiful Friar John, 
the Angelic, of Fiesole”; Fiesole was the 
town where he took his vows and became 
a Dominican monk He is sometimes 


ANGELL 




known as “Fiesole” simply, but in modern 
times Fra Angelico is his most common 
name. To “beatify” is an ecclesiastical 
process of the Roman Catholic Church by 
which one who has died is pronounced as 
“blessed,” a step on the road to saint-hood. 
The painter friar’s other name, “The An¬ 
gelic” was given him at an early date on 
account of the beauty of the saints and 
angels which he painted. His surname 
was Guido, but that was of course given 
up for “Friar John” when he took his 
vows. Fra Angelico was employed by Cos¬ 
mo de Medici to paint the frescoes in the 
convent of San Marco at Florence and in 
the church of Saint Annunziata. Pope 
Nicholas V invited him to Rome to orna¬ 
ment his private chapel in the Vatican. 
Many of his pictures are preserved in 
European galleries; The Last Judgment, 
the Madonna of the Star, and the Corona¬ 
tion of the Virgin are among them. The 
representation on canvas of his spiritual 
conception was his form of religious ex¬ 
pression. He never took money for his 
work, and always prayed before beginning 
a new picture. Fra Angelico’s “angels” 
are known and loved by all who love art. 

Angell, George Thorndyke (1823- 
1909), a noted friend of dumb animals. 
He was born in Southbridge, Massachu¬ 
setts. He died in Boston. He was gradu¬ 
ated at Dartmouth in 1846. He was edu¬ 
cated as a lawyer, but gave his life to the 
prevention of cruelty to animals. He 
founded the American Humane Educa¬ 
tional Society and distributed leaflets by 
the million. In 1866 he established the 
periodical known as Our Dumb Animals . 
He gave wide currency to Black Beauty, 
Anna Sewall’s famous plea for kindliness 
to horses. He traveled widely, and was 
instrumental in forming over 70,000 ju¬ 
venile Bands of Mercy. Mr. Angell was 
a zealous reformer, but he was also a 
man of force, character, and sincerity. His 
work amounted to something. His funer¬ 
al was a striking one. In the long pro¬ 
cession that moved from Copley Square 
to Mount Auburn were thirty splendid 
work horses with shining coats and pol¬ 
ished hoofs. They wore nothing but bri¬ 
dles, to which were fastened black ro¬ 


settes. The ring of their shoes on the 
asphalt pavement was a fitting requiem 
for their lifelong friend. See Bergh ; 
Black Beauty. 

Angell, James Burrill (1829-1916), an 
American educator, and college president. 
He was born at Scituate, Rhode Island. 
His education was received at Brown Uni¬ 
versity, and after graduation in 1849 he 
spent two years in European travel and 
study. He was then made professor of 
modern languages and literature at his 
alma mater. During the Civil War he 
edited the Providence Journal, in 1866 be¬ 
came president of the University of Ver¬ 
mont, and five years later accepted • the 
presidency of the University of Michigan. 
To president Angell is due the advance¬ 
ment of that state institution to the front 
rank among the universities of the country. 
Aside from his work as an educator Presi¬ 
dent Angell has showed himself a success¬ 
ful diplomat in the various positions he has 
held. He was United States minister to 
China 1880-81, member of the Anglo- 
American commission on Canadian fish¬ 
eries in 1887, chairman of the Canadian- 
American commission on a deep waterway 
from the Great Lakes to the sea in 1896, 
and was appointed minister to Turkey in 
1897, but gave up the position and re¬ 
turned to the University of Michigan. He 
resigned, however, in 1909 and was made 
President Emeritus. Dr. Angell has con¬ 
tributed many articles to the North A meri - 
can Review and other periodicals, and has 
published A Manual of French Literature, 
and Progress of International Law. 

Angell, James Rowland (1869- ),an 
American psychologist and the president of 
Yale University. He was born at Burling¬ 
ton, Vt. In 1890 he was graduated from 
the University of Michigan; and did post¬ 
graduate work at Michigan, Harvard, Ber¬ 
lin, and Halle universities, and in Paris, 
Leipzic and Vienna. In 1893, Dr. Angell 
was instructor in philosophy at the Uni¬ 
versity of Minnesota. In 1894, he began 
a long term of service at the University of 
Chicago. He was assistant professor of 
psychology, and director of the psycholog¬ 
ical laboratory in 1894, associate professor 
of psychology in 1901, and professor and 


ANGELUS—ANGLING 


head of the department in 1905. He was 
appointed senior dean of the University of 
Chicago in 1908, and dean of the Univer¬ 
sity faculties in 1911. Dr. Angell was 
acting president of the University of Chi¬ 
cago during 1918-19, and in 1921 was 
elected to the presidency of Yale Univer¬ 
sity. He is the author of Psychology, the 
fourth edition of which was published in 
1908; and of Chapters from Modern Psy¬ 
chology, published in 1911. 

Angelus, an'je-lus, The, a famous 
painting by the French artist, Jean 
Francois Millet. The word angelus desig¬ 
nates a prayer recited by Roman Catholics 
at morning, noon, and evening. The open¬ 
ing words of the prayer are “Angelus 
Domini nuntiavit Mariae,” “the angel of 
the Lord announced to Mary,” and is in 
the memory of the annunciation to Mary 
that she was to be the mother of Christ. 
It was customary in France to ring the 
parish bell at the hours for the prayer, and 
at the sound of the bell every occupation 
ceased, while the prayer was repeated de¬ 
voutly. In his picture Millet represents 
two peasants, man and woman, stopping 
their work in the potato field and reverent¬ 
ly bowing their heads in prayer as the bell 
sounds. The picture brought Millet but a 
small sum of money. It was sold later at 
auction and exhibited in the United States. 
In 1890 it was purchased by M. Chanchard 
for $150,000, and returned to Europe. See 
Millet. 

Anglesey, an'gl-se, an island in the 
Irish Sea. It is separated from the main¬ 
land of North Wales by the Strait of 
Menai. It is about twenty miles long by 
seventeen broad, and is very productive, 
raising large crops of oats, barley, turnips, 
and potatoes. The central or more ele¬ 
vated portion of the island yields valu¬ 
able copper, lead, and silver ores, besides 
limestone, marble, asbestos, marl, and 
granite. The interior affords excellent 
grazing for cattle and sheep. Welsh is 
the language of the peasantry. Anglesey, 
or rather the harbor of Holyhead, is the 
terminus at which railroad passengers from 
London take ship for Ireland. Trains 
cross Menai Strait to Anglesey, through 
the famous tubular bridge, a remarkable 


piece of engineering. The railroad track 
is laid inside of a huge steel tube sup¬ 
ported on piers of masonry at a great 
height above the water. One of the finest 
suspension bridges in the world also 
crosses the strait. Its roadway is 580 feet 
in length from pier to pier and swings 
100 feet above high tide. Large sea-go¬ 
ing ships are able to pass under both 
bridges. The island of Anglesey was an 
ancient seat of the Druids. A Druidical 
pontiff lived in security here, and a Druidi¬ 
cal college was located on the island. 
Agricola subdued the Druids in the year 
85 A. D. See Druids. 

Anglin, Margaret (1876- ), one of 

the most distinguished of American act¬ 
resses, was born at Ottawa, Can. She made 
her stage debut in New York in Shenan¬ 
doah, in 1894. She has been leading 
woman with E. H. Sothern and Richard 
Mansfield; has acted the title role in Zira; 
has made a successful Australian tour; 
and at various times has appeared in Anti¬ 
gone, Electra , Iphigenia in Aulis and 
Medea, at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, 
Cal. In 1919, she appeared in The Woman 
in Bronze. Of this celebrated woman, 
Mme. Bernhardt said, “She is one of the 
few dramatic' geniuses of the day.” 

Angling, the catching of fish with hook 
and line as a pastime or recreation. Fish¬ 
ing may be engaged in as a commercial 
enterprise, but the word angling is em¬ 
ployed only when the fisherman’s object is 
sport, pure and simple. It would seem 
that angling is as old, almost, as the world 
itself, although history does not recount its 
origin. Certain it is that the ancient 
Egyptians enjoyed the sport. In the Old 
Testament the prophet Isaiah foretelling 
“the burden of Egypt” says that “the wa¬ 
ters shall fail from the sea, the river shall 
be wasted and dried up . . . the brooks 

shall be emptied . . . everything sown 

by the brooks shall wither, and all they 
that cast angles into the brooks shall 
lament.” Since ancient times the sport has 
been practiced almost universally. As 
Grover Cleveland tells us there “is an 
occult and mysterious instinct” leading 
men to love it. Moreover, it is an amuse¬ 
ment that may be indulged in by anyomfe. 


ANGLO-SAXON 


Angling has furnished the theme for 
poem, essay and story, and has afforded 
endless happy digressions in books other¬ 
wise too dull for reading. 

“Fish are constantly doing the most myster¬ 
ious and startling things; and no one has yet 
been wise enough to explain their ways or ac¬ 
count for their conduct. In these circumstances 
fishermen necessarily see and do wonderful 
things. If those not members of the brotherhood 
are unable to assimilate the recital of these 
wonders, it is because their believing apparatus 
has not been properly regulated and stimulated. 
Such disability falls very short of justifying 
doubt as to the truth of the narration. The 
things narrated have been seen and experienced 
with a fisherman’s eyes and perceptions. This is 
perfectly understood by listening fishermen; and 
they, to their enjoyment and edification, are per¬ 
mitted by a properly adjusted mental equipment 
to believe what they hear.”— Grover Cleveland. 
“The pleas’nt angling is to see the fish 
Cut with her golden oars the stream, 

And greedily devour the treacherous bait.” 

—Much Ado about Nothing Act III, Sc. 1. 

“Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are 
to be born so.”—Walton, The Complete Angler. 

“We may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said 
of strawberries: ‘Doubtless God could have made 
a better berry, but doubtless God never did’; 
and so, if I might be judge, God never did 
make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation 
than angling.”—Walton, The Complete Angler. 

Anglo-Saxon, a name given to the 
Germanic peoples who migrated to Brit¬ 
ain from a country about the mouth of 
the Elbe and the Weser. They were at¬ 
tracted at first by love of plunder. Under 
Roman protection the Britons had culti¬ 
vated fields and fair towns. The rude 
Teutons came, first of all, to carry away 
grain, cattle, and clothing. About 449 
a horde under Hengist and Horsa settled 
down on the east coast permanently. 
Others followed. The chief tribes were 
the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons. The 
Jutes settled in the district between the 
Thames and the Strait of Dover, around 
Canterbury. The Saxons occupied the coun¬ 
try about London, westward and south¬ 
ward. Winchester was their old capital. 
The Angles, who later gained leadership 
and gave their name to the country, oc¬ 
cupied the eastern coast of England from 
the territory of the Saxons northward to 
the Scottish border. York lies within this 
district. The following picture is drawn 
by Taine in his English Literature: 


Picture, in this foggy clime, amid hoar-frost 
and storm, in these marshes and forests, half- 
naked savages, a kind of wild beasts, fishers and 
hunters, but especially hunters of men; these 
are they, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Frisians; later 
on, Danes, who during the fifth and the ninth 
centuries, with their swords and battle-axes, took 
and kept the island of Britain. . . . Huge 
white bodies, cool-blooded, with fierce blue eyes, 
reddish flaxen hair; ravenous stomachs, filled 
with meat and cheese, heated by strong drinks; 
of a cold temperament, slow to love, home-stay¬ 
ers, prone to brutal drunkenness: these are to 
this day the features which descent and climate 
preserve in the race. 

Without doubt the early invaders were 
mere pirates, like the Normans who set¬ 
tled on the coast of France. Although 
they were barbarians, they were much 
more advanced than were the Britons be¬ 
fore the Romans occupied the island. They 
carried iron weapons. Their knowledge 
of blacksmithing enabled them to point 
wooden plows with metal tips. They soon 
settled down to till the soil. The warriors 
parceled out the fields of the Britons into 
strips convenient for plowing. Instead of 
crowding into towns, they scattered 
throughout the country, each landholder 
building a house of logs or hewed timbers. 

Typical Anglo-Saxon society consisted 
of nobles, freemen, and serfs. The nobles, 
or earls, chose one of their number as 
king or chief magistrate. He was con¬ 
sidered in no way superior to his neigh¬ 
bors. The idea of the divine right of 
kings was entirely wanting. These earls 
formed an aristocracy, but within their 
own circle they were quite democratic. 
The freemen were small landholders, me¬ 
chanics, and the like. They ranged them¬ 
selves usually under the protection of an 
earl, or over-lord. The serfs were agri¬ 
cultural laborers, little better than slaves. 
Many were prisoners of war, or persons 
convicted of crime. They were transferred 
with the land, and were forbidden to leave 
the premises of a master without his per¬ 
mission. Custom permitted a master, 
however, to give a serf his freedom and 
convert him into a freeman. A thrifty 
serf might hope to purchase his freedom. 

The chief occupations were, of course, 
agriculture and fishing. The old records 
make mention, however, of gardens, or 
chards, vineyards, manufactures of cloth- 


ANGOLA 


ing, salt works, tapestry, hangings, and 
expensive tableware. The common peo¬ 
ple drank ale and cider. The nobility in¬ 
dulged in wine. As compared with the 
Normans, the Saxons wore their hair long 
and dressed in loose, flowing garments of 
linen and wool. Silk garments and em¬ 
broidery were confined to the wealthy. It 
is fair to say that the liberty-loving spirit 
and the faculty for local government pos¬ 
sessed in a high degree by Great Britain 
and all its colonies, including the United 
States, has been inherited from the Anglo- 
Saxons. The strong sense of personal 
equality for which English speaking peo¬ 
ple are noted is of Anglo-Saxon origin. 

The Anglo-Saxon invasions lasted for 
three centuries. The conversion of the 
people of the British Isles to Christianity 
began toward the close of the sixth cen¬ 
tury. The first mission was opened by 
St. Augustine at Canterbury. The Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury is still the official 
head of the English church. 

The Anglo-Saxon language was not so 
much a language as a number of dialects, 
for which the name Old English is now 
the usual term. In general, Old English 
resembles the German in pronunciation, 
vocabulary, and grammar. So far as rec¬ 
ords go, the traditional poetry of the An¬ 
glo-Saxons was reduced to writing first at 
Whitby, in Northumbria, about 658-680. 
The Roman alphabet was used. Anglo- 
Saxon prose dates from the reign of King 
Alfred in southern England, 871-901. As 
a matter of fact the Saxon speech of Al¬ 
fred has become the literary speech of 
England. The Anglian speech of North¬ 
umbria may be traced in the York dialect 
and in the Lowland speech of Burns and 
other Scottish writers. 

A feature which at once struck him [Tacitus] 
as parting them from the civilized world to 
which he himself belonged, was their hatred of 
cities, and their love even within their little 
settlements of a jealous independence. “They live 
apart,” he says, “each by himself, as woodside, 
plain, or fresh spring attracts him.” And as 
each dweller within the settlement was jealous 
of his own isolation and independence among 
his fellow settlers, so each settlement was jeal¬ 
ous of its independence among its fellow settle¬ 
ments. Of the character of their life in this 
early world, however, we. know little save what 
may be gathered from the indications of a later 


time. Each little farmer commonwealth was 
girt in by its own border or “mark,” a belt of 
forest or waste or fen which parted it from its 
fellow villages, a ring of common ground which 
none of its settlers might take for his own, 
but which sometimes served as a death-ground 
where criminals met their doom, and was held 
to be the special dwelling-place of the nixie and 
the will-o’-the-wisp. If a stranger came through 
this wood, or over this waste, custom bade him 
blow his horn as he came, for if he stole through 
secretly he was taken for a foe, and any man 
might lawfully slay him. Inside this boundary 
the “township,” as the village was then called 
from the “tun” or rough fence and trench 
that served as its simple fortification, formed a 
ready-made fortress in war, while in peace its 
entrenchments were serviceable in the feuds of 
village with village, or house with house. With¬ 
in the village we find from the first a marked 
social difference between two orders of its in¬ 
dwellers. The bulk of its homesteads were those 
of its freemen or “ceorls”; but amongst these 
were the larger homes of “eorls,” or men dis¬ 
tinguished among their fellows by noble blood, 
who were held in an hereditary reverence, and 
from whom the leaders of the village were cho¬ 
sen in war time, or rulers in time of peace. 
But the choice was a purely voluntary one, and 
the man of noble bload enjoyed no legal privi¬ 
lege among his fellows. The holdings of the 
freemen clustered round a moot-hill or sacred 
tree where the community met from time to 
time to order its own industry and to frame its 
own laws. Here plough-land and meadow-land 
were shared in due lot among the villagers, and 
field and homestead passed from man to man. 
Here strife of farmer with farmer was settled ac¬ 
cording to the “customs” of the township as its 
“elder men” stated them, and the wrong-doer was 
judged and his fine assessed by the kinsfolk; 
and here men were chosen to follow headman 
or ealdorman to hundred court or war. It is 
with a reverence such as is stirred by the sight 
of the head-waters of some mighty river that 
one looks back to these tiny moots, where the 
men of the village met to order the village 
life and the village industry, as their descend¬ 
ants, the men of a later England, meet in Par¬ 
liament at Westminster, to frame laws and do 
justice for the great empire which has sprung 
from this little body of farmer-commonwealths 
in Sleswick.—John Richard Green, Short His¬ 
tory of the English People. 

Angola (Portuguese West Africa), has 
been under Portuguese rule since 1575, with 
the exception of the years 1641 to 1648 
when it was held by the Dutch. The col¬ 
ony has an area of about 491,000 square 
miles, and a coast line of 1,000 miles. It 
lies between 6° and 17° South latitude, 
and from 12° to about 25° East longitude. 
The surface of Angola is extremely moun- 


ANGORA 


tainous in the western part, some of the 
peaks rising as high as 8,000 feet. The 
coast line is indented by numerous good 
harbors, the most notable of which are Sao 
Paulo de Loanda, Lobito, Benguela and 
Mossamedes. There are several rivers, but 
they are mostly short and shallow, drying 
up in the hot season; only two, the Kuanza 
and the Kunene, both flowing into the At¬ 
lantic, are navigable. 

The climate of Angola is tropical, but 
varies somewhat owing to the uneven char¬ 
acter of the land surface. Rainfall is 
heavier in the north and along the coast 
than in the interior. 

Chief among Angola’s agricultural prod¬ 
ucts are coffee, rubber, tobacco, cotton and 
sugar cane. Cotton growing has been neg¬ 
lected for some years, but is now reviving. 
The supplies of rubber, however, are rap¬ 
idly diminishing. Vegetable oils, wax, 
dried flsh and cocoanuts are also important 
products. Mineral deposits include iron, 
copper, malachite, salt and gold. The 
principal imports of the colony are textiles, 
and the principal exports are coffee and 
rubber, though large quantities of dried 
flsh are also exported. The trade of An¬ 
gola is largely with Portugal. 

The colony is administered by a High 
Commissioner, who resides at Loanda, and 
who is vested with large powers. For pur¬ 
poses of administration, it is divided into 
eleven districts. The chief city is Sao 
Paulo de Loanda; other important towns 
are Novo Redondo, Cabinda, Ambriz, Ben- 
guella and Port Alexander. The popula¬ 
tion is estimated at 2,250,000. 

Efforts toward educational advancement 
for the natives are made by the home gov¬ 
ernment, and it is estimated that there are 
now fifty-two government schools, and 
seven municipal and two private schools in 
the colony. Various missions have also 
been established. The military force varies 
between 2,000 and 4,500 men, almost all 
natives. 

Almost all the overseas trade of Angola 
is in the hands of the Portuguese ; but three 
British lines and one German line of 
steamers call at ports of the colony. It 
has a half dozen railway lines, totaling 818 


miles. The government purchased the 
Trans-African Railway in 1918. The col¬ 
ony has cable connections with East, West 
and South African telegraph systems. 

Angora, an ancient town in Asia Minor, 
which was formerly of commercial and po¬ 
litical importance. It is situated in the 
mountainous interior, 220 miles southeast 
of Constantinople. About 300 B. C. An¬ 
gora was a flourishing city under the Per¬ 
sians. In 277 B. C. it became the capital 
of the Gallic Tectosages. The city was an 
important trade center under the Romans, 
and was the capital of the Roman province 
of Galatia Prima. It was also the seat of 
one of the early Christian churches. Dur¬ 
ing the Roman occupation a beautiful 
marble temple dedicated to Rome and Au¬ 
gustus was built by the citizens. In this 
temple in 1553, inscriptions in Latin and 
Greek setting forth the deeds of Augustus 
were discovered by the Dutch scholar, Bus- 
beeg. 

There are numerous ruins in Angora and 
remains of Byzantine architecture; also a 
few relics, both Greek and Roman. The 
vilayet of Angora of Old Turkey had a 
population of 932,800. 

With the decline of the Roman empire, 
Angora lost its prestige, and in modern 
times it has been known as one of the main 
trading centers in this part of the Turkish 
empire. Before the World War the pop¬ 
ulation was about 30,000, most of whom 
were Armenians. The fortunes of war did 
not deal kindly with Angora, and in 1915 
a portion of the city was destroyed. The 
present city is described as a snowy blanket 
of flat roofs tilted upon its hill, pierced 
with minarets and cypresses. 

Angora in 1921 again became prominent 
as the capital of the reorganized Turkish 
government under Mustapha Kemal. This 
small city suddenly assumed the political 
importance held for centuries by Constan¬ 
tinople, and in 1923 it was the chief center 
of political influence in the Near East. 

Angora is famed for the celebrated long¬ 
haired goats bred there, the Arab name for 
which is chamal goat, meaning silky or soft. 
The hair is about 8 inches long and is shorn 
twice a year. The dogs, cats and rabbits 


ANGORA WOOL—ANILINE 


of this region are also long-haired, but it 
is said that when they are removed to other 
countries they lose this peculiarity; but 
this is not the case with those that have 
been introduced into Cape Colony. Goat’s 
hair forms an important export, other ex¬ 
ports being goat’s skins, dyestuffs, princi¬ 
pally madder, and yellow berries; mastic, 
tragacanth, and other gums; also honey and 
wax. 

Angora Wool or Mohair, the hair or 
wool of the Angora goat, a native of Asia 
Minor. In its best condition the fleece 
of this goat is white, from four inches to 
one foot in length, strong, fine, and very 
silky. It hangs in long spiral ringlets 
that, when ready for shearing, nearly 
touch the ground. The most important 
characteristics of mohair are brilliancy, du¬ 
rability, and elasticity. These qualities 
make the fabric peculiarly adaptable to 
certain uses, so that as a raw material, mo¬ 
hair is quite as distinct as silk, wool, cot¬ 
ton, or linen. It does not mat or felt like 
wool, although it is as durable. It is not 
as soft and flexible as silk, although al¬ 
most as lustrous. It can be made into a 
fabric nearly as light in weight as cotton 
or linen, but much stronger than either, 
and as capable of shedding dust. 

The uses of Angora or mohair are many. 
It is especially adapted for pile fabrics, 
such as Utrecht velvet, various kinds of 
plush, lap robes, and upholsteries. The 
best mohair plushes are almost indestruc¬ 
tible. Such plushes, in use as seat cover¬ 
ings in certain railway cars, have stood 
constant wear for more than twenty years. 
Mohair is used also for manufacturing 
dress goods, braids, trimmings, shawls, 
rugs, yarns, imitation furs, hosiery, coat 
* linings, and cloakings. The long hair of 
the old Angora bucks and wethers is used 
for doll’s hair, wigs, and artificial gray 
hair. It is much in demand for these pur¬ 
poses, selling at from fifty to seventy-five 
cents a pound. 

The word mohair is in common use to 
describe a special variety of dress goods. 
It designates a light weight, lustrous tex¬ 
tile with warp of cotton and weft of mo¬ 
hair, alpaca, or English luster wool. This 
fabric, usually plain, is often figured. 


It has been estimated that something 
like 24,000,000 pounds of Angora wool is 
produced in the world annually. About 
half of this is the product of South Afri¬ 
ca, 10,000,000 pounds the product of Tur¬ 
key, and the remainder the product of 
other countries. The United States fur¬ 
nishes about 800,000 pounds. 

See Alpaca; Goat; Plush; Bril- 

LIANTINE. 

Anhin'ga, an aquatic bird allied to the 
cormorant. From its long snaky head 
and neck, it is called the snakebird. It is 
also called a water-turkey. Length, thir¬ 
ty-four inches. Plumage, glossy black, 
with silvery markings. It is found in the 
Gulf States and in the Orinoco region. 
It flies, perches, and dives, but seldom * 
swims. Its favorite perch is a dried limb 
overhanging a river or bayou. On the 
approach of a strolling hunter or boat¬ 
man, it drops into the water, feet first, 
head and neck erect. After a time it rises 
to the surface, exposing only its long, 
sharp bill and a wary eye. It lives on fish, 
which it pursues under water with speed. 
In pursuit the neck is curved backward, 
but on nearing its prey, the head darts 
forward with a stroke like that of a dag¬ 
ger. The bird then rises to the surface, 
tosses the fish into the air, catches it head 
first, and that is the end of the fish. The 
anhinga lays two to four eggs in a nest of 
sticks lined with moss, in a bush over¬ 
hanging the water. 

Aniline, an'i-lm, an oily, colorless liq¬ 
uid, discovered as a product of the distilla¬ 
tion of indigo in 1826. Chemically it is 
composed of carbon, nitrogen, and hydro¬ 
gen in the atomic proportions of 6, 1, and 
7. The new substance at once attracted at¬ 
tention from chemists, although at first it 
was of no value commercially. Eight years 
after the first discovery of aniline, it was 
found to exist in small quantities in coal 
tar. The scientist who proved this fact 
noticed also that aniline gives brilliant 
colors when brought into contact with 
chloride of lime. The next step was the 
discovery that aniline could be manufac¬ 
tured from benzol, another product of coal 
tar. Since no practical use was made of 
aniline, the importance of this discovery 


ANIMALS OF CAT FAMILY 


was not realized, until, in 1856, a beauti¬ 
ful mauve or purple dye was made from 
it. Aniline acquired commercial impor¬ 
tance immediately. Soon experiments re¬ 
sulted in the discovery of a series of bril¬ 
liant dyes of almost every conceivable col¬ 
or, tint, and shade. These colors received 
in several instances fanciful names. Ma¬ 
genta and solferino are named from bat¬ 
tles of the French-Austrian War, which 
were fought about the time of their dis¬ 
covery. Others, as azuline, violine, and 
emeraldine were derivations of the names 
of existing colors. 

Several series or classes of colors have 
been produced since that time from coal 
tar products other than aniline. Each of 
these series has its chemical name, but 
they are all classed under the term, coal 
tar colors or coal tar dyes. The popular 
name of aniline dyes is inaccurate, as it 
includes properly only one series of these 
dyes. Aniline dyes, the first of these col¬ 
ors to be discovered, may be said to have 
revolutionized the dyer’s art. At the pres¬ 
ent time coal tar dyes are used to color 
wool, cotton, silk, soaps, inks, leather 
goods, confectionery, paper, and other sub¬ 
stances. 

Aniline when pure is somewhat heavier 
than water. It has a vinous smell and a 
burning taste. Aniline is a poison, so act¬ 
ing upon the blood as to destroy the red 
corpuscles. The pure food laws of many 
states forbid the sale of candy and arti¬ 
cles of diet colored with aniline. The 
Germans prepare aniline so inexpensively 
that they have a monopoly of the world’s 
market. See Dyestuffs. 

Animal, ordinarily an organism that 
grows, lives, and feels. It is difficult to 
give a definition that will separate all ani¬ 
mals from all plants. It is easy to point 
out the difference between the higher ani¬ 
mals and higher plants. The horse and 
the cow, for instance, are different from 
the elm and the rose; but it is difficult 
to distinguish between the lower animals 
and the lower plants. Scientists have 
long been in doubt whether to call bac¬ 
teria plants or animals. It is only of late 
that the decision has been given that they 
are plants. Both animals and plants grow, 


so growth does not help us out. It will 
hardly do to say that an animal feels and 
that a plant does not, for certain plants 
seem to be as sensitive as some animals. 
The sundew and other insect-catching 
plants are extremely sensitive. Most ani¬ 
mals move about, yet a sponge remains 
fixed. Some large aquatic plants float 
about without sending their roots into the 
soil. Many microscopic plants seem to 
have power of moving toward food. 

At their beginning, then, the animal ancf 
vegetable kingdoms seem quite on a level, 
and are almost indistinguishable; but the 
animal kingdom, with man at its head, 
far out-tops the vegetable kingdom. Bp 
scientists animals are distinguished from 
plants principally by the difference in thtf 
nature of the food of each. Animals can 
live on substances not differing much, if 
at all, from the substances composing 
their own bodies. They can also use sol 
id food. Plants take their food in the 
form of gases or fluids only. A certain 
number of low forms seem to combine the 
characters of animals and plants, and the 
classification of these forms can be de¬ 
termined only after a special study of each 
case. 

However much animals may differ 
among themselves, they are all alike in 
certain fundamental respects. All animals 
are composed of a complex living pro- 
teid substance, called protoplasm. This 
living substance may occur naked, or sur¬ 
rounded by a thin membrane; but it is 
always accompanied by a substance called 
nuclein, which is found in the nucleus. 
A bit of protoplasm with a nucleus is 
called a cell. Neither protoplasm nor nu¬ 
cleus can exist if separated, but each soon 
dies. Some animals consist of only one 
cell, while others are built up of a count 
less number of cells. Not only are aD 
animals alike in that they are composed 
of protoplasm, but all animals take food 
which they digest and assimilate. All ani¬ 
mals are able to throw off waste matte :a 
A ll animals grow and reproduce. 

But the differences between animals are 
perhaps more striking than the similari¬ 
ties ; and were observed much earlier. Thus 
it has long been known that birds diff*« 


ANISE—ANNAM 


from fishes and that both differ from 
frogs and reptiles. It is very easy to see 
that horses differ from cows, and both 
from sheep. Since there are millions of 
differing animals known, they have been 
separated into types, or classes, for the 
sake of convenience. All the animals in 
each type resemble each other in some 
important respects, and differ from the 
animals in other types in these respects. 
Authorities differ in regard to the number 
of types which exist, but agree in placing 
the number between nine and twelve. Ani¬ 
mals which are made up of only one cell 
are called Protozoa, and constitute Type 
I. Plant-like, fixed animals, made up of 
many cells, in the form of a modified 
vase or cylinder with perforated sides, 
constitute Type II, and are called Pori- 
fera. Other types of many-celled animals 
are the Coelenterata, the Vermes, the Mol- 
luscoidea, the Echinodermata, the Annu- 
lata, the Arthropoda, the Mollusca, and 
the Chordata. 

But animals resembling each other 
sufficiently to be classified together under 
one type may differ from each other in 
certain less important respects. There¬ 
fore it has been found necessary to divide 
each type into classes, each class into or¬ 
ders, each order into families, each family 
into genera, each genus into species. Thus, 
if the full classification of the domestic 
cat were to be given, he would be placed 
under the type Chordata, because he 
agrees with fishes, frogs, reptiles, birds, 
and mammals in having a notochord in his 
early developmental stages. He would 
furthermore be included in the class Mam¬ 
malia, because, like all mammals, the cat 
possesses mammary or milk glands. Pie 
would be placed in the order Carnivora, 
because he is a flesheater; in the family 
Felidae, because he possesses retractile 
claws, has a short face, and teeth differ¬ 
ing from other members of the Carnivo¬ 
ra. The cat is placed in the genus Felis, 
because he differs in size and color from 
other Felidae, like lions, tigers, and pan¬ 
thers. And lastly, he is placed in a dif¬ 
ferent species from the wild cat, because 
he has changed in habit, size, and color as 
a result of domestication. In a tabulated 


form the classification of the domestic 
cat would appear as follows: 


Kingdom .Animalia 

Type .Chordata 

Class .Mammalia 

Order .Carnivora 

Family .Felidae 

Genus .Felis 

Species .Felis domestica 


Every animal is classified according to 
some such scheme as this. 

Animals inhabit the land, the water, or 
the air. The science which treats of them 
is called zoology.— Ellen Torelle. 

Anise, a plant of the parsnip family. 
It is a native of Egypt, but is now culti¬ 
vated from Spain to Syria, and somewhat 
in Germany. It is an aromatic annual 
herb about two feet in height. It bears 
loose, flat-topped umbels of yellowish 
white flowers, succeeded by curved, gray¬ 
ish seeds. The latter yield a highly aro¬ 
matic volatile oil. The seeds are used in 
medicine and in cooking and to flavor 
wine. Cummin and caraway belong to the 
same family and have similar flavoring 
and medicinal qualities. When the Sa¬ 
viour said, “Woe unto you, Scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of 
mint, anise, and cummin, and have omitted 
the weightier matters of the law,” he ac¬ 
cused them of attending to petty matters 
to the neglect of important affairs. 

Annam, or Anam, an Indo-China pro¬ 
tectorate of France. It is not only the 
chief French holding in that peninsula, 
but in Asia as well. Annam lies on the 
east coast of Indo-China, with a front¬ 
age of about 800 miles on the South Chi¬ 
na Sea. It is separated from Siam on the 
west by the Mekong River. A mountain 
range extends north and south. Area 
39,758 square miles. The population 
(1920), was 5,371,189. 

The inhabitants are chiefly “Anamites,” 
speaking a language closely related to Chi¬ 
nese. The mountains are inhabited by a hill 
people. The peasants of Annam are chiefly 
Buddhists. The educated element follows 
Confucius. There are half a million Cath¬ 
olics. Rice is the food crop. The coun¬ 
try produces rice, corn, cinnamon, sugar, 
tea, coffee, cotton, tobacco, and silk. The 
Anamese considered themselves natives of 









ANNAPOLIS—ANN ARBOR 


the south of China. Legendary Chinese 
annals running back, nobody knows how 
long, but for a couple of thousand years 
before the Christian Era, speak of the in¬ 
habitants of Annam under a native name 
which signifies “with the big toe.” 

Speaking historically, about 214 B. C. 
Annam became a Chinese possession. In¬ 
dependence was secured in 1428, over half 
a century before the discovery of America 
by Columbus. In the days of greatest 
prosperity Annam held Cochin-China and 
Tonking. About the middle of the nine¬ 
teenth century France began to interfere 
in the affairs of Annam on the score of 
protecting the natives who had been con¬ 
verted to Christianity. After the camel 
got its nose in, the body followed. Suc¬ 
cessive treaties were forced upon the rulers 
until, in 1886, the French government, 
English fashion, announced that Annam 
had consented to permanent French pro¬ 
tection. 

The King of Annam governs, assisted 
by a Council of Ministers, in accordance 
with the wishes of the French Government. 
The capital is Hue, a city of 60,611 peo¬ 
ple. A French garrison occupies the cita¬ 
del. The ports of Annam are open to 
all countries for trade. 

Annapolis, the capital of Maryland 
and the seat of Anne Arundel County. It 
is situated near the Chesapeake. The city 
was founded in 1649 by a colony of Puri¬ 
tans from Virginia. The name was 
changed from Providence to the present 
name in 1708 in honor of Queen Anne. 
Annapolis is one of the historic cities of 
the Union. In the old state house Gen¬ 
eral Washington tendered his resignation 
as commander-in-chief of the Continental 
army. A meeting of delegates from five 
states, known in history as the Annapolis 
Convention, was held September 11, 1786, 
to discuss needed changes in the Articles 
of Confederation. The city has a large 
business in fruits, berries, vegetables, oys¬ 
ters, and glass. Population, 1920, 11,214. 
See Lafayette ; Maryland. 

Annapolis Naval Academy, a na¬ 
tional academy for the instruction of fu¬ 
ture naval officers maintained at Annapo¬ 
lis, Maryland. It has training stations at 


Newport and San Francisco. It was 
founded in 1845. The students are styled 
midshipmen. Each senator, representative, 
and delegate in Congress is allowed five 
appointments, and Porto Rico five, who 
must be natives. Each year the President 
appoints fifteen men from the United 
States at large and two from the District 
of Columbia, The navy is allowed 100 
selected from enlisted men. 

Candidates must be actual residents of 
the districts from which they are ap¬ 
pointed ; they must be between sixteen and 
twenty years of age, unmarried, and not 
weigh less than 105 pounds at sixteen 
years with an increase of five pounds for 
each additional year. They are rigidly ex¬ 
amined in English, Geography, History, 
and Mathematics. The course of training 
is six years—four years at the Academy 
and two years at sea—after which the final 
graduation takes place. Each midshipman 
is allowed $750 a year and traveling ex¬ 
penses. On admission to the academy he 
must sign an agreement to serve the United 
States Navy during the pleasure of the 
President of the United States. 

There are more than 2,000 cadets and 
scores of instructors. The pay of grad¬ 
uates who have been commissioned and are 
on the active list is as follows: 

Admiral .$10,000 

Vice-Admiral . 9,000 

Rear-Admiral .6,000 to 8,000 

Captain . 4,600 

Commander . 4,100 

Lieut.-Commander . 3,840 

Lieutenant . 3,120 

Lieutenant (Junior) . 2,600 

Ensign . 2,120 

Ann Arbor, a thriving inland city of 
southern Michigan. Population, 1920, 

19,500. It is the shipping point of a 
large agricultural and fruit growing re¬ 
gion, and has prosperous manufactures of 
implements, furniture, wagons, pumps, and 
engines. The city is noted chiefly, how¬ 
ever, as the seat of the University of 
Michigan, the oldest of a large group of 
state universities in the North Central 
States. It was established in 1837, the 
year in which the state was admitted to 
the Union. The intelligence, liberality, 
and scholarship that have characterized 











ANNE—ANNOTTO 


the University of Michigan have resulted 
in the development of one of the great 
universities of the world. It possesses a 
spacious campus and capacious buildings. 
There are various colleges, large faculties, 
including many professors of acknowl¬ 
edged scholarship, leaders in their re¬ 
spective departments of thought. There 
are over five thousand students. Public 
confidence in institutions of higher educa¬ 
tion supported by the state was won by 
the success of this state university. As a 
consequence the state university idea has 
been intrenched in the West as a part of 
a public school system in practically all the 
states, connecting at every step with the 
district school. See University; Michi¬ 
gan. 

Anne, Queen of Great Britain and 
Ireland (1665-1714). She was born in 
London, the daughter of the Duke of York, 
afterward James II. Anne was the last 
British sovereign of the Stuart line. In 
1683, she was married to Prince George 
of Denmark. He knew little about the 
affairs of state, and never troubled himself 
to learn more. Anne had borne 17 chil¬ 
dren, but only one of them survived in¬ 
fancy. This one died in 1700, at the age 
of 11. She had no direct heir, therefore, 
when she ascended the throne in 1702. 
Anne was neither brilliant nor firm, being 
dominated throughout her reign by one 
person or another. First, and chiefly, she 
was influenced by the playfellow of her 
youth, Lady Churchill, who afterward be¬ 
came the Duchess of Marlborough; and 
later by Mrs. Masham, a relative of the 
Duchess, and the Queen’s favorite. Anne 
was desirous of securing to her brother the 
right of succession. Her ministers were 
not unfavorable to this plan, but they were 
constantly quarreling among themselves 
over other matters. A dispute occurred in 
the Queen’s presence between the Earl of 
Oxford, one of her ministers, and Mrs. 
Masham. The dispute was carried on for 
hours, and ended only when Anne de¬ 
manded Oxford’s immediate resignation. 
This affair was soon followed by the stroke 
of apoplexy of which the Queen died. The 
chief events of her reign were the union 
of England and Scotland, and the War of 
the Spanish Succession. Although Anne 


gave little or no active encouragement to 
the arts or sciences, her reign is sometimes 
called the Augustan Age; and among the 
illustrious men of the period were Swift, 
Pope and Addison. 

Annealing, the process of softening 
and toughening metals so that they are 
less brittle and more readily rolled into 
sheets or drawn into wires. Annealing is 
the opposite of tempering. Copper may 
be annealed by being plunged into cold 
water when at a white heat. Zinc heats 
and grows tough and flexible by the very 
process of being drawn into wire. Most 
metals are made flexible and tough by 
heating them until they are soft, and then 
allowing them to cool slowly, the more 
slowly the better. A blacksmith desiring 
to anneal a piece of iron heats it to a 
white heat, and then thrusts it into a heap 
of ashes, which conduct heat poorly, to 
cool off slowly. On the contrary a sud¬ 
den plunge into a tub of water hardens 
or tempers a heated plowshare. Skill is 
required by the blacksmith to sharpen a 
plowshare and yet avoid the extremes of 
brittleness and softness. Wrought iron is, 
of course, annealed iron. 

Anniston, Ala., has a delightful loca¬ 
tion in the foothills of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains, 63 miles east of Birmingham. 
It is the county seat of Calhoun Co. It 
was founded in 1873 by the Woodstock 
Iron Company, but was not opened to set¬ 
tlement by the public until ten years later. 
The most important industry is the pro¬ 
duction of cast-iron pipe. It has also blast 
furnaces, foundries and machine shops. It 
contains the Alabama Presbyterian Col¬ 
lege, Noble Institute, and the Barber Me¬ 
morial Seminary, an industrial school for 
colored girls. Population, in 1920, 17,734. 

Annotto, or Arnatto, a coloring ma¬ 
terial. It is obtained from the pulp of 
the berries of the arnatto. The latter is 
a small tree growing in tropical America. 
The West Indies are the chief source of 
supply. The Indians rub annotto on their 
bodies as a defense against mosquitoes. 
Annotto is brought to market in brown 
cakes. It is the accepted coloring used 
by dairymen to give butter and cheese a 
rich yellow, palatable appearance. An- 


ANNUAL—ANNUNZIO 


notto is used as a dye for silks, woolens, 
and cotton goods. It may be employed to 
deepen the yellow of lacquer and var¬ 
nishes. It is a remedy, it is claimed, in 
case of fever. 

Annual. See Herb. 

Annuity, a sum payable annually for 
a term of years, or for life, or even for¬ 
ever. A system of life annuities grew up 
in England in connection with the system 
of entail according to which the family 
estate is inherited usually by the oldest 
son. He was charged with paying a fixed 
sum annually to the other heirs during 
their natural lives. In this way the title 
and the estate not infrequently passed to 
one son, while the income, owing to fall¬ 
ing rents, went to the other heirs. Family 
pride and public sentiment combine to re¬ 
quire the holder of the estate and the fami¬ 
ly title to settle an annuity for life on 
needy and dependent relatives. 

During the past fifty years the pay¬ 
ment of annuities has been taken up on 
both sides of the Atlantic by corporations, 
chiefly in connection with life insurance. 
Policies of many kinds are written. In 
return for a sum paid in hand the com¬ 
pany undertakes to return a fixed amount 
each year of the purchaser’s life, or the 
policy may be drawn in favor of a rela¬ 
tive, as a parent, wife, or child. A fa¬ 
vorite form of annuity is a joint annuity, 
payable so long as either husband or wife 
may live. Instead of a lump sum, pay¬ 
ment is not infrequently made for a series 
of years, as ten or twenty, at the end of 
which return payment in the form of an 
annuity begins. 

Annuities are not altogether a modern 
affair. Traces of the system may be 
found in the records of Babylon and other 
oriental centers of commerce. Roman 
laws prescribed suitable regulations for 
the payment of annuities. In medieval 
times speculation sometimes took the 
form of purchasing annuities based on the 
lives of persons in whose case longevity 
was to be expected. The English gov¬ 
ernment sold annuities in 1808-1828, thus 
funding a large part of the public debt, 
but lost money by selling too cheaply. 

A desire to speculate instead of buying 


annuities and opportunity for profit 
through investment has retarded the 
growth of annuity companies in this coun¬ 
try, but as the country grows older and 
confidence in companies becomes estab¬ 
lished, this form of investment may be¬ 
come more popular as a means of making 
provision for old age. 

In selling annuities no health exami¬ 
nation is required, as the poorer the health 
of the applicant, the more desirable the 
sale. In return for a lump sum, say 
$1,000, the older the applicant the larger 
the annuity that may be sold safely. An 
epidemic is disastrous to a life insurance 
company, but a source of profit to an an¬ 
nuity company. Long lives are profitable 
to life insurance and a source of loss to 
annuity companies. 

In return for a payment of $1,000 the 
leading companies agree to pay a person 
of forty years of age an annuity of 
$52.75 ; 45, $58.10; 50, $64.70; 55, 

$73.50; 60, $86.20; 65, $100; 70, 
$123.45; 75, $149.95; 80, $180.15. 

See Insurance; Tontine. 

Annunzio, Gabriele D’ (1864- ), an 

Italian novelist, poet, dramatist and sol¬ 
dier, was born at Francavilla, an Adriatic 
fishing village. He began to contribute 
stories to Italian papers when only 15 
years of age. Early success fanned his 
desire; he worked unstintingly to master 
the Italian language and to perfect his 
style, and succeeded so well that at the 
opening of the 20th century he held first 
place in Italian letters. Some of his works 
are frank to the point of impropriety, and 
his subjective manner detracts from the 
realism of some of his characters; yet in 
all his work there is the undoubted sign of 
the original genius. He is a master word 
painter capable of sustained flights of 
imagination. 

D’Annunzio volunteered as a private in 
the aviation section of the Italian army at 
the outbreak of the World War; was made 
a lieutenant in 1915; received the Croix 
de Guerre of France; and by word and 
act did much to stimulate the Italian na¬ 
tional spirit. When, in 1919, controversy 
arose between Italy and Jugo-Slavia over 
Fiume, D’Annunzio resigned his rank of 


ANSELM—ANT 


lieutenant-colonel in the army, and in Sep- ‘ 
tember, 1919, took possession of Fiume 
with a small army of his own, and defied 
the government to dispossess him. His 
action was caused by the proposed rehabili¬ 
tation of Fiume as a separate state with 
territorial contiguity to Italy. D’Annun¬ 
zio capitulated in December, 1920, and dis¬ 
banded his army of about 6,000. Some 
actual fighting occurred between D’Annun¬ 
zio’s followers and the Italian regulars. 
About 35 men were killed and 170 
wounded. 

Anselm (1033-1109), a noted medie¬ 
val scholar. He was born at Aosta, in 
Italian Piedmont. He was educated at 
the convent of Bee in Normandy. Here 
he became prior, and in 1078 he was made 
abbot. Under William II and Henry I of 
England, from 1093 to 1109, he was Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury. Anselm adhered 
stanchly to the principles of Pope Grego- 

rv VII. He took for his motto “Credo 
* 

ut intelligently —“I believe in order that 
I may know.” He taught that the believ¬ 
er should advance from direct and simple 
faith to whatever degree of scientific 
knowledge may be attainable, but always 
with faith unshaken. Doctrines taught by 
the church were not to be questioned. The 
student might investigate only to learn 
why the doctrines were true. Anselm’s 
position is thus stated by himself. His 
words are translated, of course, from the 
original Latin into English: “Whether 
that is true which the universal Church 
believes with the heart and confesses with 
the mouth, no Christian can be permitted 
to question; but, while holding fast to it 
without doubting, and loving and living 
for this faith, he may and should search 
in humility for the grounds of this truth. 

If he is able to add to his faith intelli¬ 
gence, let him thank God; if not, let him 
not turn against his faith, but bow his 
head and worship.” In the history of 
philosophy Anselm is known as one of 
the great school men. See Abelard; 
Scholasticism. 

Ansgar, ans'gar (801-865), a Frankish 
missionary to Denmark, Sweden and north¬ 
ern Germany. He was born near Amiens, 
France. He received his education at the 


monastery of Amiens and at another in 
tKorvei, Westphalia. His first attempt to 
introduce Christianity to the northern na¬ 
tions was made at Schleswig, where he met 
with marked success, although he was 
severely persecuted. He extended his work 
to Denmark and Sweden, and won the 
name by which he is often known, the 
“Apostle of the North.” He has been 
canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. 

Ansonia, Conn., a manufacturing city 
on the Naugatuck River, 12 miles west of 
New Haven. Notable among its products 
are heavy machinery, wire goods, electrical 
appliances and brass ware. One of the 
most prominent buildings is the Anson G. 
Phelps public library, a memorial to the 
founder of the city. Its government con¬ 
sists of a mayor and a municipal council. It 
was settled in 1840, and chartered as a 
city in 1893. Population, 1920, 17,643. 

Ant, a family of insects allied to bees 
and wasps. Ants are not mistaken readily 
for other insects; but scientists rely on a 
lens-shaped scale or segment to be found 
at the waist or peduncle of the true ant. 
Ants are social, living in communities. 
The males and females are winged. The 
workers are undeveloped females. They 
are wingless. The reader is referred to 
the article on the Bee for comparative in¬ 
formation. The ant queen is not jealous. 
Several may live in the same community, 
hence no regular swarming takes place. 
In the season of haying the males and fe¬ 
males of many thousand communities come 
out and fly together, giving the impression 
that flying ants are a species by them¬ 
selves. After the pairing season is over, 
they all fall to the earth. The males die 
and the females drop their wings and seek 
entrance to ant hills, where they are wel¬ 
comed by the workers, or else they start 
new nests. The eggs of the ant are so 
small that they can scarcely be seen with 
the naked eye. The queens drop them care¬ 
lessly in the runways. The eggs are seized 
upon by the workers, and shifted about to 
the driest and warmest parts of the nest. 
The tiny, white, footless larvae are fed 
usually by the workers with rich honeydew. 
The “ants’ eggs,” which the excited work¬ 
ers mav be seen lugging away on the dis- 



A colony of army ants on the march. 


Nest of the woolly ant. Eggs are stored in the 
lower cell; larvae being fed in the upper. 




Covered passageway in process of construction. 



Storehouse of the honey ant. Visiting ants on the march Nests and fields of the agricul- 

in West Indies. tural ant of Texas. 

ANTS. 















ANTARCTIC CONTINENT 


turbance of their nest, are not eggs but are 
cocoons or pupae; that is to say, ants in 
the third stage about to burst the white 
membrane and come out fully developed. 

There are many species of ants. The 
common, small brown ant that throws up 
a ring of particles of earth about its bur¬ 
row is quite a remarkable ant in its way. 
Ants live usually on flesh or vegetable 
food and many species, if not all, are 
fond of flower sweets; but this particu¬ 
lar ant makes a regular custom of follow¬ 
ing plant lice, or aphids, for the sake of 
the honeydew or sweet juice which these 
insects give out from their bodies. This 
ant even cares for the eggs of the aphid 
over winter, and apparently herds the 
adult aphids. An ant approaches an aphid, 
fondles it affectionately with its antennae, 
and, when the pleased animal gives off 
honeydew through the tubercles of its 
body, the ant proceeds to suck it up greedi¬ 
ly. Ants found running up and down the 
stems of weeds, cornstalks, house plants, 
and trunks of trees or garden vegetables, 
are, in all probability, on the way to or 
from their peculiar “milk cows.” 

The carpenter ant is a large, black ant 
found in logs and half rotten timbers, in 
which it cuts extensive galleries. The 
queen goes off into a cell alone and rears 
her young, feeding them on food stored 
in her body. 

The honey ant community includes pe¬ 
culiar individuals that stay in chambers 
and receive the honey collected by their 
associates until they grow to enormous 
size. In time of scarcity these vat-like 
ants regurgitate this honey for the benefit 
of their now hungry fellows. 

The slave-holding ant has a rusty red 
head and foreparts, with brownish legs 
and abdomen. It makes its nest under flat 
stones and logs. It has a curious habit of 
making slaves, not unlike that practiced by 
ancient nations. Scouts are sent out to lo¬ 
cate the nest of a colony of independent 
slave ants, a darker red-legged ant that 
prefers to live alone and unmolested. 
When the scouts have reported, the slave 
makers sally out in full and orderly array 
to storm the nest of their neighbors. The 
adult ants defend themselves fiercely, for 


if overcome, they are bitten to death. 
Their larvae and pupae, maggots and co¬ 
coons, are taken home by the conquerors 
and matured into slaves. 

One of our common ants is the mound 
builder that constructs mounds of sticks, 
straw, and dirt. These ants have commo¬ 
dious underground quarters. They con¬ 
struct pathways leading in all directions 
along which they, tug, carry, and push 
seeds, insects, and leaves many times 
their own weight. 

The agricultural ant of Texas estab¬ 
lishes paths leading in every direction 
from the home. It destroys all vegetation 
near the nest, with the exception of cer¬ 
tain seed-bearing grass. This it cuts down 
when ripe, carrying the seed into its bur¬ 
rows for winter food. 

The so-called leaf-cutting ant is an ag¬ 
ricultural pest in Central America. An in¬ 
vasion of these ants is as much to be feared 
in a lemon or orange grove as a flight of 
Rocky Mountain locusts in a wheat field. 
Instead of bloom, fragrance, and promise 
of fruit, in a few days, or even hours, not 
a vestige of leaf or bud is to be seen. 

The telegraph poles of the Panama 
Railway are of iron. The army ants of 
that region destroy a cedar pole over 
night. Du Chaillu, the African traveler, 
describes a column of army ants that oc¬ 
cupied twelve hours in passing before 
him. Wild animals flee before them. They 
pick the bones of the largest animal in a 
few hours. 

It has been thought that ants communi¬ 
cate ideas by means of their antennae. 
When one ant meets another, they cross 
antennae, apparently by way of giving in¬ 
formation. At all events a messenger 
has some means of throwing a camp into 
a high state of excitement. 

The ant has long had the respect of 
naturalists and philosophers and has an 
enviable place in literature, well summa¬ 
rized by Solomon, “Go to the ant, thou 
sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.” 

See Termites; Bee; Wasp; Ant- 
eater; Aphids. 

Antarctic Continent, a term given to 
a mass of land thought to surround the 
south pole. From whatever direction 


ANTARCTIC—ANTEATER 


ships approach the south pole, they en¬ 
counter floes of pack ice and are stopped 
finally by ice-capped land. Glaciers from 
the interior glide into the sea a few inches 
daily, and break off into icebergs that 
float about, rendering it impossible at 
times to get near the coast. In 1842 a 
navigator by the name of Ross sailed for 
about 300 miles along the face of an 
ice wall so high and steep that a landing 
was impossible. Some of the icebergs that 
get afloat from such a wall form ice 
islands many miles in diameter. From 
certain directions ships are able frequently 
to sail within 12 degrees of the pole. 

In October, 1908, Lieutenant Ernest H. 
Shackleton of the British navy undertook 
a sledge journey into this region. Instead 
of a dog team, ponies were taken, but it 
was necessary to sacrifice them all for 
food. On January 9, 1909, he reached 
latitude 88° 23', longitude 162° east. He 
hoisted the Union Jack and left it flying. 
Lieutenant Shackleton reports a high pla¬ 
teau from 10,000 to 11,000 feet above the 
sea. It is scoured by enormous glaciers. 
One glacier 40 miles broad he traced 
for 120 miles. He saw no less than 8 
distinct mountain ranges, and counted 
over 100 mountains. Lieutenant Shackle¬ 
ton was within 111 miles of the south 
pole. Lie was on the continent 126 days 
and traveled 1,708 miles. He brought 
back a large collection of geological spec¬ 
imens and many photographs. 

On December, 14, 1911, Roald Amund¬ 
son who had made several attempts to reach 
the North Pole, reached the South Pole. 
This was only a short time before Captain 
Scott succeeded in reaching the coveted 
goal on January 18, 1912. On the return 
trip Scott’s expedition was halted by a 
blizzard and perished. Consult the biog¬ 
raphies of these men. 

The continent is evidently from 1,000 
to 2,000 miles in diameter. Various parts 
of the coast are called Victoria Land, 
Wilkes Land, Enderby Land, King Ed¬ 
ward VII Land, Kaiser William Land, 
Coats Land, etc. The bottom of the sea is 
strewn with gravel, blocks of granite, sand¬ 
stone, limestone, jasper, and other rocks, 
carried outward by the glaciers and 
dropped by melting icebergs, indicating 


genuine continental land. The interior of 
the ice field has been little explored. 
Amundsen reports that the region imme¬ 
diately about the pole is a vast plain and 
reasonably level. It is a region of heavy 
snows that pile up and up, but never melt, 
except as they creep slowly away on their 
journey of hundreds of years to the sea. 
The intense cold of the region is inter¬ 
rupted by a number of active volcanos. Mt. 
Erebus is 15,000 feet high. The eruptions 
throw a weird and spectral glare into the 
darkness of the winter-long antarctic night. 

The Antarctic shores are not without 
fishes. Wherever an islet or point of land 
is free from ice, insects, mosses, lichens, 
and grasses are found. Penguins nest on 
these flats in enormous numbers. The 
broad wings and the cries of the albatross, 
the tern, and the gull relieve the dreari¬ 
ness a little. Whales, grampuses, and 
dolphins are found in Antarctic waters. 
No less than thirteen species of sea lions 
and fur seals climb ashore to rear their 
young; but, properly speaking, the region 
has no land animals such as the arctic 
fox and the ptarmigan, found in corre¬ 
sponding latitudes of the north. Save by 
an occasional scientific expedition and the 
ships of sealers and whalers, the solitude 
of the great ice cap of the south is un¬ 
broken by man. It is left to the ceaseless 
heave and grind and crash of the ice pack 
that surrounds it like a barrier. 

Antarctic Ocean, a name commonly 
given to the waters that surround the ice- 
capped south polar regions. While not 
a naturally defined ocean at all, its north¬ 
ern limit is considered to be the Antarctic 
Circle. I his zone of water contains a 
great number of islands, and is evidently 
traversed by ocean currents that carry ice¬ 
bergs into the southern parts of the ad¬ 
jacent oceans. 

Anteater, a name given to several quite 
different animals, but particularly to a 
sloth-like family of tropical American 
eaters of ants, sometimes called ant bears. 
The great anteater is of the size of a bad¬ 
ger. Its body is about twelve inches long; 
its neck and head eleven inches, and its 
tail sixteen inches. It has an extremely 
long snout and can extend its tongue nine 
inches. Indeed its tongue is so long that 


ANTELOPE—ANTHON 


it must be doubled up in the mouth when 
not in use. It resembles a skunk, but its 
extremely long snout, immense tail, and 
huge fore claws show that its habits are 
its own. It is a slow animal. Much of 
its time is spent in sleeping, with its huge, 
bushy tail thrown over it for a hairy blan¬ 
ket. It prowls about always on the 
ground, in the forests of the Amazon. It 
has no teeth. It gathers ants with its long 
tongue from an ant hill or the trunk of 
a tree where they are running. Its front 
claws are so large that, when not in use 
for tearing open ant hills, they are doubled 
backward under the foot, especially in 
walking. Other smaller species, the size 
of a cat or less, climb trees and hang from 
branches by their tails, like monkeys. The 
young of the various species ride snugly 
on the mother’s back, where they cling to 
her fur and are sheltered by the long hair 
of her tail. A somewhat similar animal 
is known in Africa as the aardvark. See 
Sloth ; Armadillo. 

Antelope, a group of animals placed 
by scientists midway between cattle and 
goats. The antelope resembles the deer 
in habits and appearance, but is entirely 
distinct. The so-called prong-horned an¬ 
telope of the West belongs to another 
family. Antelopes proper are found only 
in the Old World. By far the greater num¬ 
ber of one hundred species belong to Afri¬ 
ca. The gazelle of Syria is noted for grace 
and the beauty of its eye. The pigmy ante¬ 
lope of African forests is only thirteen 
inches in height. It is the smallest known 
cudchewer. The eland of South Africa 
ranks with cattle in weight. The Dutch 
colonists of Cape Colony and South Afri¬ 
ca found antelopes so numerous and tame 
that they could be depended upon for 
meat as though they were domestic cattle; 
but several species have been exterminated, 
and others bid fair to become extinct. Both 
sexes have horns which are retained like 
those of domestic cattle. These, and their 
fleetness of foot, are their only protection 
against beasts of prey. They are the fleet¬ 
est of quadrupeds. The lion lives chiefly 
on antelopes. Dr. Livingstone’s Travels 
give many authentic anecdotes of ante¬ 
lopes and their speed, and ofttimes suc¬ 


cessful defense against the lion and other 
enemies. See Gazelle; Pronghorn; 
Horn; Chamois; Gnu; Uganda. 

Antennae, a pair of feeling organs 
peculiar to insects, crayfish, and closely 
related animals. They are usually thread¬ 
like or club-shaped, and are inserted be¬ 
tween, or in front of, the eyes by a ball 
and socket joint. They are moved by 
small muscles at the base within the head. 
The antennae of some insects are simple; 
others are branched; some are straight; 
some curved. Insects use their antennae 
for many purposes. A nerve from the 
brain extends through the antenna to its 
tip, making this organ as sensitive as the 
eye, ear, or the tongue of ordinary animals. 
Ants seem to communicate with each other 
by rubbing their antennae together. The 
honey bee works in the dark, making its 
cells of exactly the right size and shape, 
its only guide being measurements made 
by the antennae, just as a sculptor molds 
his model with the aid of his finger tips. 
It is now well understood that many in¬ 
sects not only feel, but hear and smell, 
and are sensitive to light by means of 
these wonderful organs. If a bee loses a 
leg or a wing, it doesn’t seem particularly 
distressed; but when its antennae are cut 
off, it is dazed and stupefied as though 
a part of its brain had been removed. It 
has been found that if an eye of a cray¬ 
fish is cut off from its stalk, an antenna 
frequently develops in its place. If an 
antenna is removed from the head of a 
crayfish, an antenna, not an eye, regen¬ 
erates in place of the old one. See In¬ 
sects. 

Anthology, a Greek term meaning a 
collection of flowers, a garland. Hence a 
collection of short poems or beautiful pas¬ 
sages. Compiling an anthology has been 
a favorite task since the first anthology 
was made by Meleager, a Syrian, 90 B. C. 
One of the latest and most meritorious, 
entitled A Victorian Anthology, was com¬ 
piled by E. C. Stedman. Emerson also 
made a collection of choice poems, to 
which he gave the name Parnassus. 

Anthon, Charles (1797-1867), an 
American educator. He was a native of 
New York, and a graduate of Columbia 


ANTHONY—ANTHRAX 


College. He studied for the law, and 
was admitted to the bar, but he preferred 
to become an instructor in Columbia. He 
edited an edition of Horace, 1830. Some 
fifty volumes, mainly Greek and Latin 
classics for school and college use, fol¬ 
lowed in due succession. Dr. Anthon was 
a kindly man of vast erudition, but it was 
felt that his notes were too copious and 
left little for the student to do. Hence the 
expression, “with his Anthon,” is akin, 
in college phrase, to the aid of a “pony” 
or translation. 

Anthony, Susan Brownell (1820- 
1906), an American reformer. She was 
born at South Adams, Massachusetts, of 
Quaker ancestry. She was a teacher, an 
organizer of temperance societies, an anti- 
slavery leader, and an ardent advocate of 
female suffrage. She was associated with 
Garrison, Douglass, and other anti-slavery 
workers. Her most intimate friend was 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Lucretia Mott, 
Lucy Stone, and Frances E. Willard were 
also co-workers. In 1853 Miss Anthony 
made her first public speech. The occa¬ 
sion was a meeting of the New York Ed¬ 
ucational Convention. Women were per¬ 
mitted membership and were, it may be 
presumed, allowed to pay their annual 
dues, but they were not expected to be 
heard. When Miss Anthony rose to ad¬ 
dress the chair, the convention was thun¬ 
derstruck. The men wrangled half an 
hour over the proposed innovation before 
they instructed the presiding officer to 
waive the point of order and grant Miss 
Anthony the privilege of'speaking. When 
Miss Anthony began her work, there were 
practically no occupations for women ex¬ 
cept domestic service, sewing, and teach¬ 
ing young children. High schools were 
not open to girls. A woman’s property 
belonged to her husband. She could not 
even collect her own wages. One of Miss 
Anthony’s great victories was a law passed 
by the legislature of New York in 1860, 
giving a woman the right to hold her own 
property and to act as guardian to her 
children. One who wrote her life says, 
“Every girl who now enjoys a college ed¬ 
ucation; every woman who earns a living 
in any profession or trade; every wife 


who is protected in the ownership of prop 
erty; every mother who has an equal right 
with the father to the custody and control 
of her children; every woman who belongs 
to a club and works for individual and 
civic improvement, owes these sacred privi¬ 
leges to Susan B. Anthony above all oth¬ 
ers.” Miss Anthony was for many years the 
president of the National American Wo¬ 
man Suffrage Association. She was an 
able platform speaker, a cogent writer, 
a courageous, persistent woman. With it 
all she was known among her associates 
as a sympathetic friend and an excellent 
cook and housewife. Whatever fanciful 
notions might possess others, she never 
forgot that the world is full of hard work 
and of every day prosaic duties. See 
Howe, Julia Ward; Willard, Frances. 

Anthracite. See Coal. 

Anthrax, an infectious disease preva¬ 
lent chiefly among cattle, sheep, and other 
grazing animals. The horse and deer are 
also attacked, as well as the goat, the 
hog, and the guinea pig. It is held that 
all warm blooded animals, whether flesh- 
eaters, or herb-eaters, are subject to the 
disease. Man is occasionally affected, and 
it is held by some authorities that birds are 
immune. 

The disease is of an epizoic nature. It is 
also known as bloody murrain and wool 
sorter’s disease. It is due to one of the 
rod-shaped bacteria. The germ is one of 
the largest. It has been known since 
1849, and was one of the forms studied 
by Dr. Koch in his famous investigation 
of bacteria as the cause of contagious dis¬ 
ease. It is very difficult to kill the germs 
either by drying or by boiling. Domes¬ 
tic animals have been known to acquire 
anthrax by grazing above the spots where 
animals dying of the disease had been 
buried three years before. 

The germ multiplies very rapidly, espe¬ 
cially in the blood, where it produces the 
poisonous substances causing death. The 
germs are commonly taken in with food or 
water though they may gain entrance to 
the system through wounds. When in the 
form of spores they resist heat, cold and 
most disinfectants, and may live in the soil 
for years. It is found that lowlands, 


ANTHROPOLOGY—ANTICOSTI 


especially those having a muck soil, are 
more likely to be infected than higher 
lands with a dry soil, and cattle and sheep 
pastured on lowlands are more likely to 
contract anthrax than those in different 
pastures. Fields containing stagnant pools 
are especially infectious. 

The symptoms of the disease vary with 
the animals and the type of disease. In 
its most acute form the animal usually ap¬ 
pears to be perfectly well at first, though 
it may have a high temperature. This 
condition is followed by tremors, grinding 
of the teeth and standing with the head 
down. The animal soon becomes very 
weak and leans against a support or lies 
down. The disease progresses more rap¬ 
idly when the germs gain entrance through 
food than when they enter through wounds, 
because in the former case the vital organs 
are immediately affected. In violent cases 
the animal dies within one or two days. 
In milder cases it may survive for several 
'days. 

When appearing in man, anthrax is gen¬ 
erally known as a wool sorters disease be¬ 
cause it is contracted by those who are 
engaged in handling wool or tanning lea¬ 
ther. The wool or the hides, as the case 
may be, are infected and the infection 
enters the system through scratches or 
other cuts. In man, anthrax is recognized 
by the formation of large fistules or car¬ 
buncles. The disease is seldom fatal but 
when suspected a physician should be con¬ 
sulted at once. 

In domestic animals medical treatment 
is of little avail. The surest methods are 
those of prevention. First and most ef¬ 
fective is vaccination with a vaccine which 
renders the animal immune. This vaccine, 
however, is a powerful and dangerous rem¬ 
edy unless properly administered, and it 
should always be used by an experienced 
veterinary surgeon. Exclusion of the dis¬ 
eased animal as soon as suspected is im¬ 
perative, and the carcass of a dead animal 
should be burned or deeply buried as soon 
as possible. 

Anthropology. See Races of Men. 

Anti-Cigarette League. The begin¬ 
ning of this organization was the founding 
of a local league in Chicago in 1899 by 


Miss Lucy Page Gaston. Her work among 
the boys of Chicago bore such good results 
that she was asked by business men to 
undertake similar work of national scope. 
The League is supported by a membership 
fee of ten cents each and voluntary con¬ 
tributions. Women and girls are admitted 
to membership as auxiliary members and 
urged to lend their influence to the cause. 
In connection with the activities of the 
league free clinics exist, in order that those 
who wish to give up the cigarette habit 
may find aid. Medical treatment and cer¬ 
tain diets assist in the cure. 

Two kinds of treatment are suggested 
by the League: (a) Six ounces of a solu¬ 
tion (one-fourth of one per cent) of nitrate 
of silver. This is used as a mouth wash 
after each meal for one week, if needed. 
It is not to be swallowed, (b) Gentian 
root (not powder) chewed between meals. 
This is a tonic and an aid to digestion. 
To this medical treatment is added a diet 
which consists chiefly of fruits, cereals and 
milk. 

The progress of this movement was 
checked during the fight for prohibition, 
but with the election of a dry Congress in 
1922, and the activity of government 
agents, the movement has attained a new 
impetus and something over half a million 
dollars have been pledged to the cause. 
The League is working for a membership 
of ten million by 1925, and this member¬ 
ship will include total abstainers from 
liquor as well as cigars and tobacco. The 
organization publishes a small magazine 
Clean Life, issued monthly. 

Anticosti, a rocky island in the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence, belonging to the province 
of Quebec. It is a favorite resort for bear 
and other wild animals, and for many 
years was held under lease by M. Menier, 
the famous French chocolate manufacturer, 
who made it a game preserve and at¬ 
tempted to develop its resources. Agricul¬ 
ture is almost impossible, for the interior 
is either rocky or swampy, and even where 
the soil is favorable mid-summer frosts 
kill many crops. Geologically the island 
is interesting as being one of the best ex¬ 
amples of the transition between the Ordo¬ 
vician and the Silurian systems. Its area 


ANTI-FEDERALISTS—ANTILLES 


is 3,147 square miles. The population, for 
the greater part lighthouse-keepers and 
their families, is about 250. It is almost 
destitute of harbors, and the shores are 
mountainous and beset with shoals. 

AntUFederalists, a political party in 
the United States, which was in opposition 
to the so-called Federalists. Theoretically, 
they believed in a National form of gov¬ 
ernment. The party was formed when the 
Constitution of the United States was an 
issue. Those in favor of the Constitution 
adopted the name of Federalists. These 
had the advantage of having a positive pro¬ 
gramme, and had gained the first two 
points in the conflict when the national 
constitution was adopted, and they com¬ 
mitted the government to such extensive 
powers as the creating of a national bank. 
The Anti-Federalists, therefore, were only 
a political party in opposition to the party 
in power. When the Federalists, however, 
appeared to encroach upon the liberty of 
the jurisdiction of the states, and even per¬ 
sonal liberty, as voiced in the Alien and 
Sedition Acts, the opposition of the Anti- 
Federalists became acute, and they voiced 
their disapproval in the so-called Virginia 
and Kentucky Resolutions. Jefferson was 
their leader, and under his guidance the 
Anti-Federalists triumphed in the election 
of 1800. Soon after this, however, the 
leaders began to abandon the party’s in¬ 
sistence upon the strict interpretation of 
^the Constitution and its narrow limitation 
of the powers of the government. The 
first step in this direction was the purchase 
of Louisiana. When the Federalist party 
went out of existence, the Anti-Federalists 
retained the chief principles of the former. 
The party afterwards was known as the 
Republican party, then Democratic-Repub¬ 
lican, and finally as the Democratic party. 
The name Anti-Federalist is commonly 
applied to the party in power up to the 
Adams administration, but the name should 
be limited to the campaign for the adop¬ 
tion of the Constitution. 

Antidote. See Poison. 

Antietam, an-te'tam, a small creek in 
Maryland fifty miles west of Washington. 

It flows through a wooded ravine into the 
Potomac a few miles below Harper’s 


Ferry. It is noted as the scene of one of 
the deoisive battles of the Civil War. 
General Lee’s army, engaged in his first 
invasion of the North, was here turned 
back in a bloody battle, September 16 and 
17, 1862. The Union forces were com¬ 
manded by Generals McClellan, “Fighting 
Joe” Hooker, Sumner, Meade, Burnside, 
and Fitz John Porter. Noted command¬ 
ers of the Confederate side were Lee, 
“Stonewall” Jackson, Stuart, Pickett, Hood, 
and Hill. Not less than 100,000 men were 
engaged. The carnage was terrific. En¬ 
tire regiments were almost wiped out. 
Missing, wounded, and killed outright, 
the loss of both sides taken together was 
not far from 25,000 men. 

Antigone, an-tig'o-ne, a famous char¬ 
acter in the legendary history of Greece. 
She is a notable example of filial love and 
sisterly devotion. She has been compared 
to Cordelia in Shakespeare’s King Lear. 
Antigone is the subject of two of the trage¬ 
dies of Sophocles. Her father, Oedipus, 
the victim of a direful fate, is driven from 
his kingdom, and, shunned by everyone 
but his daughter, is doomed to unhappy 
wanderings. At his death Antig one 
mourns: 


Alas ! I only wished I might have died 

With my poor father; wherefore should I ask 
For longer life? 








L en what was most unlovely grew beloved 
When he was with me. 


Antilles, an-tilTez, the curved chain of 
large and small islands forming the outer 
boundary of the Caribbean Sea. It sweeps 
from Cuba around to the coast of Venezue¬ 
la, including practically the whole of the 
West Indies except the Bahamas. Cuba, 
Jamaica, Porto Rico, and Haiti are called 
the Greater Antilles. They appear to con¬ 
sist largely of primitive rock. The Lesser 
Antilles are largely of coral and volcanic 
formation. They include a large number 
of groups. Sailors call the northern part 
of the chain the Leeward Islands; the 
southern part, the Windward Islands. The 
plants, animals, and industries resemble 
those of Central America. Farther in¬ 
formation may be found under West In¬ 
dies and the names of the more important 
islands. 


ANTIMONY—ANTIQUARY 


An'timony, a brilliant, bluish-white, 
brittle, crystalline metal, found in nature 
in combination with sulphur. Ores of an¬ 
timony are found in California and Nev¬ 
ada, Mexico, New Brunswick, Bavaria, 
Italy, Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Sardinia, 
Asia Minor, Japan, Borneo, Cape Colony, 
Australia, and New Zealand. Antimony 
is obtained by melting the ores with iron, 
in which case the sulphur deserts the anti¬ 
mony for the iron, leaving the antimony 
free. Only about 4,000 tons a year are 
required for the arts. Its principal use 
is in alloys, particularly with lead and tin, 
to form type metal, to which antimony 
gives the required degree of hardness. 
Antimony is used in medicine. The al¬ 
chemists called it regulus, from the readi¬ 
ness with which it acted on gold, the royal 
metal. Ground antimony is much used by 
the women of Turkish harems for painting 
the eyebrows and eyelashes, and to give lus¬ 
ter to the eyes. See Alloy; Poison. 

Antioch, an'tT-ok, once a name ranking 
with Rome, Athens, Alexandria, and Baby¬ 
lon; now an obscure city of Syria. It is 
situated on the Orontes, fifteen miles from 
the Mediterranean. It was founded in 
the midst of a beautiful fertile plain, 300 
B. C. When Alexander’s kingdom broke 
into fragments, the capital of the eastern 
or Babylonian kingdom was located finally 
at Antioch. The city was noted for the 
splendor and magnificence of its public 
buildings. A straight street four miles in 
length led eastward through its center. A 
covered portico, supported by a double row 
of marble pillars, rose along each side. 
The river Orontes and a dark cypress 
grove sacred to Daphne added to the beau¬ 
ty of the vicinity. “Antioch, the Beauti¬ 
ful,” “The Crown of the East,” were fa¬ 
vorite names. Thirteen successive mon- 
archs were proud to be called Antiochus. 
A royal palace, senate house, gilded temple 
of Jupiter, theater, amphitheater, aqueduct, 
public gardens, and baths were erected in a 
style exhibiting the combined influence of 
Grecian art, eastern luxury, and unlimited 
wealth. Situated only fifteen miles from 
a safe seaport at the mouth of the little 
river, favored by the government, Antioch 


became the western terminus of the eastern 
caravan trade. 

The city has had a varied history. Un¬ 
der the Roman Empire it was a city of 
importance, and became a center of the 
Christian faith. Antioch is referred to in 
Acts xi: 26: “And when he had found 
him, he brought him unto Antioch. And 
it came to pass, that a whole year they 
assembled themselves with the church, and 
taught much people. And the disciples 
were called Christians first in Antioch.” 
Many Christian churches were erected. 
Ten general councils of the church were 
held here. 

Antioch passed successively into the 
hands of the Saracens, the Greek emper¬ 
ors, the Crusaders, the Mamelukes of 
Egypt, and finally in 1516, into the hands 
of the Turks. Earthquakes and hovel 
builders have left little of the old splendor 
standing. The present city is a squalid 
place of 20,000 people. There is some ex¬ 
port trade in silks, leather, carpets, goat’s 
wool, and beeswax; but, with a better day 
dawning on the Orient, Antioch may again 
become a city of importance. 

Antiope. See Farnese Bull. 

Antipodes, an-tip'o-dez (Greek, against 
feet), people who live on diametrically op¬ 
posite portions of the earth’s surface with 
their feet turned toward each other. The 
term is applied also to localities. Thus 
the north pole and the south pole are an¬ 
tipodes. Any two points on the equator, 
180° apart, are antipodal. When noon 
in one place, it is necessarily midnight at 
the other, and if the places be not situated 
on the equator, it is midsummer at the 
one, when midwinter at the other. Antip¬ 
odes Island is an uninhabited island about 
460 miles southeast of New Zealand, so 
called from being nearly opposite Green¬ 
wich, England. 

Antiquary, The, a novel by Sir Walter 
Scott, published in 1816. It was intended, 
the author tells us, to illustrate the man¬ 
ners of Scotland during the last ten years 
of the eighteenth century. Jonathan Old- 
buck, the Antiquary, is the hero of the 
story. Lovel, Isabel Wardour, the Earl of 
Glenallan, and Eveline Neville are other 
prominent characters. See Scott. 


ANTISEPTIC—ANTONIO 


Antisep'tic (anti-poisonous), a term 
applied to any process or substance that 
arrests decay. Inasmuch as decay, rot, pu¬ 
trefaction, fermenting, souring, “spoiling,” 
and maturation are the results usually of 
low forms of bacterial or fungous life, any 
process or substance that destroys or 
checks the growth of mold, yeast, rust, 
smut, mildew, or bacteria is antiseptic. In 
a large sense the processes of heating, boil¬ 
ing, burning, smoking, pickling, canning, 
preserving, freezing, and disinfecting are 
antiseptic. Of substances, sugar, most 
oils, alcohol, vinegar, formalin, salt, alum, 
niter, creosote, tar, paint, in short, all 
preservatives, are antiseptic. In a narrow¬ 
er sense the term is one used in surgery 
to denote means employed to prevent bac¬ 
teria from lodging and growing in wounds 
or incisions made by the knife. In addi¬ 
tion to the sterilization of instruments, of 
bandages, lint, and other appliances, car¬ 
bolic acid and other dressings are used to 
prevent the lodgment and growth of bac¬ 
terial germs. See Bacterium; Surgery; 
Lister. 

Antitoxin, or Antitoxine, an-tl-toks'm, 
a word meaning literally “opposed to 
poison.” A toxin or toxine is the poison¬ 
ous product of disease-producing bacteria. 
The word antitoxin is used most commonly 
to designate the serum which is opposed to 
the poison of diphtheria bacilli, since it is 
in the cure of diphtheria that an antitoxin 
has been used chiefly, and with most 
marked success. The antitoxin for lock¬ 
jaw, pneumonia, and other diseases is in 
use, however, and progress is being made 
constantly in this line of therapeutics. The 
principle underlying this method of treat¬ 
ment is that in the blood of persons or ani¬ 
mals suffering from a bacterial disease a 
substance is formed by natural processes 
which has the power to render harmless the 
toxin or poison produced by the bacteria. 
If an animal is inoculated with very small 
but constantly increasing doses of the toxin 
produced by the diphtheria bacillus the re¬ 
sult will be the development of a powerful 
antitoxin, which, when injected into the 
blood of human beings suffering from 
diphtheria, surpasses all other methods for 
the treatment of this disease. 


Ant-Lion, a predatory insect w’tb four 

gauzy wings, somewhat resemDling the 
dragon fly. The common name arises from 
the manner in which the young secure 
food. The larva of an ant-lion is about 
half an inch long and has a pair of strong 
curved jaws. It crawls to a dry, sandy 
spot where insects are likely to run, and 
flings the sand with its head until it has 
a» circular pit from one to three inches 
across, with sloping sides of sliding sand. 
It then buries itself to the eyes in the cen¬ 
ter of the pit and waits for some hurrying 
ant to come sliding down the funnel. The 
ant-lion now bestirs itself and aids the ant 
in its descent by flinging sand at it, or by 
stirring the sand below. In this way an 
apparently helpless “worm” outwits one of 
the most nimble and intelligent insects. 
Chambers speaks of a European species 
that makes a pit thirty inches in diameter. 
Entomologists report over fifty species 
from the semi-arid regions of the south¬ 
western United States. 

Antoninus. See Marcus Aurelius. 

Antoni'nus, Wall of, a military defense 
constructed by the Romans in Britain 
about 140 A. D. It led from Old Kirk¬ 
patrick on the Clyde to the Firth of Forth, 
a distance of twenty-seven miles. The 
work was designed to keep out the northern 
barbarians. It consisted of a ditch about 
twenty feet deep and forty wide; a breast¬ 
work of earth and stones, twenty-four feet 
thick at the base and about twenty feet 
high, and a military road following the 
south side of the wall from Clyde to 
Forth. The work was protected by a 
chain of nineteen forts with watch towers 
at frequent intervals. A force of Roman 
soldiers kept constant guard. Traces of 
the wall may still be found. The defense 
was named for Emperor Antoninus Pius, 
during whose reign it was constructed. See 
Hadrian. 

Antonio, an-to'ni-o, in Shakespeare’s 
Merchant of Venice, the wealthy merchant 
from whom the play takes its name. Al¬ 
though the action seems to hinge upon An¬ 
tonio, through his relations with Bassanio 
and Shylock, he is not the hero of the play. 
Antonio may be regarded as one of Shakes¬ 
peare’s finest characters. His friends speak 


ANTONY—ANTWERP 


of him as “the good Antonio.” One says, 
“A kinder gentleman treads not the earth,” 
and another, “O, that I had a title good 
enough to keep his name company.” An¬ 
tonio is a name of frequent occurrence in 
literature. Shakespeare himself used it in 
several plays. The Venetian merchant, 
however, is the character whom the name 
usually brings to mind. See Merchant 
of Venice. 

Antony, Mark (83-30 B. C.), a Ro¬ 
man soldier. The third of the name, re¬ 
markable alike for his ability and his vices. 
Antony was a personal friend of Julius 
Caesar and served with him in the Gallic 
Wars. As is well understood, Caesar kept 
an eye on public affairs at Rome, whither 
Antony returned and secured his own elec¬ 
tion as tribune. When the senate passed 
an act commanding Caesar to disband his 
army, Antony and his colleague interposed 
a veto and disguised as slaves fled for 
their lives to Caesar. This gave Caesar the 
desired pretext for crossing the Rubicon 
and marching on Rome. When later the 
conspirators assassinated Caesar at the foot 
of Pompey’s Pillar, Mark Antony stirred 
up the populace against them in a famous 
oration of which Shakespeare has given us 
his idea in the play of Julius Caesar. With 
Octavius and Lepidus, Antony formed the 
triumvirate which pursued Brutus and 
Cassius to Thessaly, where Antony won 
the famous battle of Pharsalia. In the 
subsequent division of the Roman world, 
in which Lepidus played a small part, 
Octavius received Rome and the West; An¬ 
tony, Alexandria and the East. 

At Alexandria Antony fell under the 
influence of Cleopatra, the last of the Ptol¬ 
emies, and led a life of debauchery and 
ease. Octavius, not content with Rome, 
found an easy pretext and quarreled with 
Antony. The details of the quarrel be¬ 
tween them would be tedious; but where 
one man is ambitious and scheming, while 
the other is profligate and careless, even 
though brave, it is not difficult to foresee 
who is to be the master. Octavius de¬ 
feated his rival in a naval battle off Ac- 
tium, and Antony fled to Alexandria in 
search of Cleopatra. Learning that she 
had played him false, he fell on his sword 


and put an end to a brave, generous, prof¬ 
ligate, and, on the whole, worthless life. 

See Cleopatra. 

Antony and Cleopatra, one of Shakes¬ 
peare’s tragedies. It was written and pro¬ 
duced on the stage in 1607. It was printed 
first in the Folio of 1623. The source of 
the plot is North’s Plutarch. In the first 
three acts Shakespeare followed the his¬ 
torical narrative more closely than in any 
of his other plays. See Shakespeare. 

In the fourth and fifth acts Shakespeare’s 
method changes, and he expands his material 
with magnificent freedom. The whole theme 
is in his hands instinct with a dramatic grandeur 
which lifts into sublimity even Cleopatra’s moral 
worthlessness and Antony’s criminal infatuation. 

. . . Into the smallest as into the greatest per¬ 
sonages Shakespeare breathed all his vitalising 
fire. The “happy valiancy” of the style, too 
—to use Coleridge’s admirable phrase—sets the 
tragedy very near the zenith of Shakespeare’s 
achievement, and while differentiating it from 
Macbeth, Othello, and Lear, renders it a very 
formidable rival.—Sidney Lee. 

Antwerp, an important commercial city 
of Belgium. It is situated on the “lazy 
Scheldt,” sixty miles from the North Sea. 
It is at least a thousand years old. At the 
time of the discovery of America, Antwerp 
was the leading commercial city of western 
Europe, far surpassing London. It hat) 
not had fair treatment at the hands of 
jealous rivals. Just to realize how unfair 
nations can be, it is well to know that by 
the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648, it wa^ 
agreed to forbid merchant ships from en¬ 
tering the Scheldt, nor was Antwerp pen 
mitted to engage again in commerce until 
the French opened the Scheldt in 1794. 
Napoleon spent $10,000,000 in the con¬ 
struction of docks. Ete declared Antwerp 
to be a “loaded pistol which I hold at 
the throat of England.” Antwerp had its 
full share of the miseries of the warfare 
which from time to time rolled over the 
Netherlands. It suffered from the “Span¬ 
ish Fury” of 1576 and the “French Fury” 
of 1583, and on October 7, 1914, the 
“German Fury” began to set a trail of 
agony by bombarding the city for ten days 
into a veritable inferno with shells filled 
with naphtha. King Albert sent a messen¬ 
ger to the German lines with a map of 
ancient landmarks, begging their safety. 


AORTA—APACHE 


The cathedral is the most noted church 
edifice in the Low Countries. It is nearly 
500 feet long and three-quarters as wide. 
Its graceful north tower and lofty spires, 
more than 400 feet high, rising above the 
unique roof, and beautiful colored windows 
are battered and torn. Three great mas¬ 
terpieces of Rubens adorn its walls— The 
Descent from the Cross, The Elevation of 
the Cross, and The Assumption . 

The modern city of Antwerp was re¬ 
garded the strongest fortress in the world. 
$20,000,000 was spent only five years be¬ 
fore the war to strengthen it. It was re¬ 
garded as impregnable; but the huge Ger¬ 
man guns reduced it to bits, the Belgian 
guns being too short ranged to reply. For 
many years before the war the city was the 
greatest seaport in the world. The popu¬ 
lation in 1920 was 333,832. See Amster¬ 
dam ; Scheldt; Vandyke; Rubens. 

The city was so ancient that its genealogists, 
with ridiculous gravity, ascended to a period 
two centuries before the Trojan war, and dis¬ 
covered a giant, rejoicing in the classic name 
of Antigonus, established on the Scheld. This 
patriarch exacted one-half the merchandise of 
all navigators who passed his castle, and was 
accustomed to amputate and cast into the river 
the right hands of those who infringed this 
simple tariff. Thus “Hand-werpen,” hand-throw¬ 
ing, became Antwerp, and hence, two hands, in 
the escutcheon of the city, were ever held up 
in heraldic attestation of the truth. The giant 
was, in his turn, thrown into the Scheld by a 
hero, named Brabo, from whose exploits Bra¬ 
bant derived its name. . . . But for these an¬ 
tiquarian researches, a simpler derivation of the 
name would seem “an t’ werf,” “on the wharf.” 
It had now (in the first half of the 16th cen¬ 
tury) become the principal entrepot and ex¬ 
change of Europe . . . the commercial capi¬ 
tal of the world. . . . Venice, Nuremberg, Augs¬ 
burg, Bruges, were sinking; but Antwerp, with 
its deep and convenient river, stretched its arm 
to the ocean and caught the golden prize as it 
fell from its sister cities’ grasp. . . . No city, 
except Paris, surpassed it in population, none 
approached it in commercial splendor.—Motley, 
The Rise of the Dutch Republic. 

Aorta, the great artery through which 
the heart forces blood to the entire body. 
In the human body it springs from the left 
ventricle, and arches backward to the spi¬ 
nal column, thence downward. From the 
very beginning the aorta begins to give 
off small arteries; first, those that supply 
the heart itself, then from the top of the 


arch, the arteries that supply the head, 
neck, and arms. On its downward descent 
the aorta gives off branches that supply 
the body with arterial blood, dividing 
finally into two large arteries, one for each 
leg. All arteries save that which carries 
blood to the lungs for purification are 
branches of the aorta. The aorta of an 
average person is about half an inch in 
diameter. It is considered that all the 
blood of the body is pumped through the 
aorta on an average once each twenty- 
three minutes. See Heart; Blood; 
Harvey. 

Apache, a-pa'cha, an Indian tribe of 
Athabascan stock, related to the Navajos. 
They occupied the mountains of New Mex¬ 
ico and Arizona. In 1853 the United States 
made the Gadsden Purchase, acquiring 45,- 
000 square miles, now included in the 
southern part of Arizona and New Mexico. 
The Apaches at this time were found to 
be at mortal enmity with the Mexicans. 
They subsequently gave our government 
much trouble. From 1857 until 1886, a 
period of thirty years, the region of the 
Apaches witnessed one continued series of 
outbreaks, massacres, and reprisals. They 
proved themselves to be without exception 
the most hardy, daring, skillful, relentless, 
bloodthirsty tribe with which settlers have 
had to deal. It is estimated that there were 
10,000 of them at the beginning of this 
period. They owned the best of riding 
ponies, descended from the original Span¬ 
ish horses introduced into the southwest. 
Armed at first with bows and arrows, in 
the use of which they had wonderful skill, 
and later with firearms obtained from the 
whites, they were a formidable foe. 
Mounted on their fleet, wiry steeds, they 
would emerge from their mountain fast¬ 
nesses, sweep down upon the settler’s cab¬ 
in, scalp the inmates, apply the torch, and 
get back to the mountains again before 
the break of day. Not less than a thou¬ 
sand settlers were killed outright, or car¬ 
ried into captivity and tortured to death 
by these savages. Small detachments of 
troops were waylaid. It was impossible 
for stage coaches to pass through their 
country without military escort. Many a 
thrilling tale is told of battles with these 


APE—APHIDS 


Indians. They were hunted out finally by 
the United States troops under Generals 
Crook and Miles. About 5,000 of them 
are now confined on reservations at Fort 
Sill, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. Of late 
the Apaches have found employment as 
common laborers in building railways and 
roads and ii> constructing irrigation works. 
Contractors claim that they are quite as 
skillful and as satisfactory as the workmen 
obtained from Italy, Greece, and Austria. 
Old Geronimo, the famous chieftain un¬ 
der whom the Apaches made their last 
stand, was a central figure at the World’s 
Fair held in St. Louis in 1904. He had 
cunning, cruel features, a low, wrinkled 
forehead, glittering eyes, and thin, sharp 
lips. He received so much attention that 
he became quite irritable. He appeared to 
lack entirely the native dignity of the 
Sioux chiefs. He seemed in every way 
worthy of the nickname, “Red Devil,” giv¬ 
en him by General Miles. See Indians. 

Ape, the name formerly applied to any 
animal of the monkey kind, but now re¬ 
stricted to the man-like tailless apes found 
in the equatorial forests of the Old World. 
The chimpanzee, gibbon, gorilla, and 
orang-utan are apes. The young are more 
human and less brutal in appearance than 
older individuals. The adult ape has the 
same number of teeth as a man, but its 
canine teeth are very large. Its skull has 
thick ridges and crests. The forehead is 
low, and the brain cavity small. The 
great toe is short and capable of use some¬ 
what like a thumb. The skeleton is strong¬ 
er than that of man. The legs are shorter 
than those of man, the arms are longer. 
The ape can stand upright, but not with 
ease. All apes are clothed with hair, ex¬ 
cept on the face and palms. They lack 
the cheek pouches and tails of monkeys. 
When walking, they usually double the 
fingers under, walking on the knuckles in¬ 
stead of the palm. They live mainly on 
fruit. The “ape” of Barbary is a short- 
tailed monkey. It is found also on the 
rock of Gibraltar, being the only repre¬ 
sentative of the monkey family m Europe. 
It is a favorite trick animal with the show- 
maTl g ee Monkey ; Gorilla ; Chim¬ 
panzee; urang-Otan. 


Apelles, a-pel'lez, a Grecian painter, 
born 332 B. C. He painted a portrait of 
Alexander the Great on the walls of the 
Temple of Diana of Ephesus. A shoe¬ 
maker, according to one story, found fault 
with a defect in the sandals of Apelles’ 
Venus. The artist accepted the suggestion; 
but when the unlucky cobbler grew bold 
and ventured other criticism, Apelles told 
him sharply that “a shoemaker should 
stick to his last.” He worked with indus¬ 
try and is credited with the proverb, “No 
day without a line.” 

Apennines, ap'-en-nins. See Italy. 

Aphids, a'fids, small insects, commonly 
known as plant lice. An aphid has a pear- 
shaped, usually green, minute body, seldom 
one-fourth of an inch in length, with long 
legs, long feelers, and two pairs of gauzy 
wings. Plant lice infest vegetation every¬ 
where. Trees, growing field crops, vege¬ 
tables, wild flowers, and house-plants are 
full of them. They feed by sucking the 
juice from tender leaves, buds, and shoots. 
Some species live on the roots of plants. 
The grape phylloxera, the pest of the vine¬ 
yard, is a root aphid that has destroyed 
thousands of vineyards. There are many 
species, about two hundred and fifty 
in the United States. Many leaf blights 
are due to plant lice. The maple, elm, 
oak, beech, apple tree, peach tree, cherry 
tree, cabbage, field corn, and many 
other plants have plant lice peculiar to 
each. About the only aid the fruit grower 
has from nature is the lady-bug, which 
devours them in immense numbers. An 
aphid introduced into California from 
Australia with fruit, becoming a pest, has 
been held in check by the introduction of 
a lady-bug from the same locality. 

Plant lice are noted for the production 
of honeydew which exudes from their 
bodies and falls on twigs, leaves, and the 
earth. Bees and wasps gather it for the 
honey that can be made out of it. Many 
species of ants depend on the aphid for 
food, which they induce it to yield as a 
cow yields milk. An aphid infesting the 
roots of Indian corn, and a brownish ant 
that lives in the soil, work together in a 
sort of partnership. The ant cares for the 
eggs and larvae of the aphid, burrowing 


APHRODITE—APOCALYPSE 


to the roots of the corn and placing the 
young aphid on a supply of food. The 
adult lice supply the ants in turn with 
food. On the leaves of an American ivy 
vine passing the window by which this ar¬ 
ticle was written, medium-sized, dark-col¬ 
ored ants may be seen fondling aphids 
with their antennae and gathering honey- 
dew. The ants live under the house, and 
seem to run up the stem of the ivy daily, 
confident of finding food. Each stays 
a half an hour or so, then marches down 
again with a contented air. 

Plant lice multiply rapidly. During the 
growing season of the year, the female 
gives birth to countless numbers of young, 
without their going through the interme¬ 
diate stage of hatching from an egg. Un¬ 
der favorable circumstances the lice may 
become so numerous and they suck so 
much sap, that they retard the growth of 
a plant or even kill it. Many a conserva¬ 
tory is ruined. Gardeners, fruit growers, 
and florists get after the lice with soapsuds 
or spray with a mixture of kerosene and 
water, well shaken together. 

The multiplication or reproduction 
among the aphids is quite complex, but 
very interesting, and is now engaging the 
attention of scientists in Europe and in 
America. In each colony there are usual¬ 
ly both winged and wingless individuals, 
the number of wingless predominating. 
Both forms are females, and give birth to 
living young during the spring and sum¬ 
mer. In some species the living young 
is born inclosed in a soft shell. In the 
autumn, on the approach of cold weather, 
a generation is produced, including both 
males and females. The females of this 
generation are always wingless, but the 
males may be either winged or wingless. 
These sexual forms pair, and the female 
produces eggs which usually survive the 
winter, and are therefore termed winter- 
eggs. In the spring these eggs hatch, 
producing the winged and wingless fe¬ 
males referred to above. 

See Ant; Insects. 

Aphrodite, af-ro-dl'te, in Greek my¬ 
thology, the goddess of love and marriage. 
Homer describes her as the daughter of 
Zeus and Dione. Other authorities state 


that she sprang from the foam of the sea. 
The Zephyrs wafted her to the shore of 
the Isle of Cyprus. PIere the Seasons re¬ 
ceived her, dressed her as suited her beau¬ 
ty, and led her to Olympus. The gods 
were charmed with the fair goddess, and 
each one demanded her for a wife. Zeus 
bestowed her upon Vulcan. She became 
the mother of Eros or Cupid. Aphrodite 
was also called Cvtherea, because of her 
worship on the island of Cythera. Aphro¬ 
dite, or Venus, as the Romans called her, 
possessed a girdle called the Cestus, which 
had the power of inspiring love. She was 
also able to grant beauty and all physical 
charms to her votaries. The rose, myrtle, 
poppy, and apple were sacred to Aphro¬ 
dite, and among animals the dove, swal¬ 
low, swan, ram, hare, and tortoise. See 
Venus. 

Apiary, a'pi-a-ry, a beehouse or group 
of beehives. The word is from the Latin 
apis , a bee, which is found also in such 
words as apiculture, apiarist, etc. A farm¬ 
er who keeps a few hives of bees to pro¬ 
duce honey for his own table seldom uses 
so pretentious a term as apiary, any more 
than he would call a half dozen apple trees 
in his dooryard an orchard. But when bee¬ 
keeping becomes more extensive, is fol¬ 
lowed as a business, the word fills an ac¬ 
tual need. See Bee. 

Apis, a'pis, the Bull of Memphis, wor¬ 
shiped with great reverence by the an¬ 
cient Egyptians. The name signifies “the 
hidden one,” and the Sacred Bull was sup¬ 
posed to be the incarnation of Osiris, the 
god of the under world. The individual 
animal held to be an Apis was recognized 
by certain signs. It must be black, have 
a white triangle on the forehead, a half 
moon on the breast, and a small hump 
under the tongue in the shape of a scara- 
baeus or beetle. This beetle was an em¬ 
blem of immortality. If such a bull was 
found, it was brought with great rejoic¬ 
ing to Memphis, tended with care, and, 
at its death, buried with elaborate cere¬ 
monies and at great cost. 

Apocalypse, a-poc'a-lips, a name fre¬ 
quently given to the last book of the New 
Testament. It is believed to have been 
written near the close of the first century 



APOCRYPHA—APOPLEXY 


by John, “the beloved disciple,” after he 
had been banished to the isle of Patmos 
by the Roman Domitian. The word apoc¬ 
alypse is from the Greek and signifies “I 
reveal.” The apostle begins his revelation 
with the words, “I, John, was in the isle 
that is called Patmos,” but it is claimed 
that the book was written after his return 
to Ephesus. 

Apocrypha, a-pok'ri-fa, a collection 
of fourteen books originally issued in the 
authorized version of the Old Testament, 
but now commonly omitted. These books 
are: The first and second books of Esdras, 
Tobit, Judith, a portion of the book of 
Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, The 
Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, Baruch 
the Prophet, The Song of the Three Chil¬ 
dren, Susanna and the Elders, Bel and the 
Dragon, The Prayer of Manasses, the 
first and second books of the Maccabees. 
These books are usually recognized by the 
Church of Rome, but they are excluded 
by most Protestant churches. The word 
apocrypha means hidden, or obscure. By 
the earliest churches it was applied to 
any professedly sacred or inspired writings 
whose authorship was unknown, whose 
meaning was obscure or doubtful, or which 
were considered objectionable. The four¬ 
teen books named above were written in 
Greek, not in Hebrew. They were never 
included among the canonical books of the 
Jewish Bible. They have been the oc¬ 
casion of considerable disputation in the 
Greek, Roman, and Anglican churches. 
They are occasionally included, but in a 
group by themselves, in the King James 
version of the Scriptures. 

Apollo, a-polTo, in mythology, the son 
of Zeus and Leto. He was one of the 
twelve great gods of Greece, the god of 
the sun, of poetry, prophecy, and of medi¬ 
cine. With his twin sister, Artemis, he 
was born on the island of Delos. Next 
to Zeus, Apollo was the most important 
of the gods of Olympus. When five days 
old he throttled the Python. With his 
father Zeus he fought the Titans and the 
Giants and destroyed the Cyclops. He 
aided Poseidon in building the walls of 
Troy, and afterward sent a pestilence on 
the city because he was cheated out of his 


pay. There are many points of similarity 
between Apollo of the Greeks and the 
sun-god of the Egyptians. The arrows of 
Apollo correspond to the beams of the sun. 
His smile was essential to the prosper¬ 
ity of the herdsmen and the tillers of the 
field. People dying without sickness were 
thought to be struck by the darts of Apol¬ 
lo. In the worship of Apollo at Thebes, 
the peasants are said to have thrust wood¬ 
en pegs into apples, to represent legs and 
horns, and to have offered these as an in¬ 
expensive substitute for sheep. A temple 
of Apollo at Delphi in Greece was a noted 
place of resort. His priests were supposed 
to be entrusted by him with information as 
to the future. In art Apollo is repre¬ 
sented as youthful, vigorous, and graceful, 
carrying variously a bow, a quiver, a shep¬ 
herd’s crook, a swan, an olive branch, or 
a tripod. He is represented frequently as 
playing while the Muses dance. The most 
famous statue of Apollo is that called the 
Belvidere, preserved in the Vatican Palace 
at Rome. It represents him just after his 
victory over the serpent, Python, the ter¬ 
ror of the people of Parnassus. In his 
Childe Harold Byron thus describes this 
statue: 

The Lord of the unerring bow, 

The god of life, and poetry, and light, 

The Sun, in human limbs arrayed, and brow 
All radiant from his triumphs in the fight. 

The shaft has just been shot; the arrow bright 
With an immortal’s vengeance; in his eye 
And nostril, beautiful disdain, and might. 

And majesty flash their full lightnings by, 
Developing in that one glance the Deity. 

See Delphi; Olympus. 

Apollyon, a-pol'li-on, or a-pol'yun, 
the angel of the bottomless pit, mentioned 
in Rev. ix: 11. Bunyan has introduced 
Apollyon into his Pilgrim's Progress. 
Christian wages a terrible combat with 
him. See Bunyan. 

Apoplexy, a disease of the blood vessels 
of the brain. It may take the form of the 
bursting of a blood vessel and the flood¬ 
ing of a brain area; or of a softening 
of the walls of a blood vessel, and the ac¬ 
cumulation of a dam of soft material in 
an artery, thus shutting off the blood sup¬ 
ply of a brain area; or it may be that 
obstructive material is swept into an ar- 


APOSTLES’ CREED—APPALACHIANS 


Cery of the brain from some other part 
of the body. In all three forms the re¬ 
sults are much the same. One side of 
brain and body is paralyzed. The face 
becomes empurpled, the patient, uncon¬ 
scious. A slow pulse, dilated pupils, and 
chills are common symptoms. Laying on 
the non-paralyzed side, mustard to the feet, 
loose clothing, quiet, and blood letting are 
recommended by medical authority. High 
living and want of exercise are supposed 
to favor the disease. Excitement or an¬ 
ger, causing a rush of blood to the head, 
are immediate causes of a fit of apoplexy. 
Young and old are subject to it. The ef¬ 
fects of apoplexy may pass away, but are 
likely to linger, and the symptoms are 
almost certain to recur. A person of short, 
stocky build, with a corpulent body and a 
quick temper, is supposed to be particu¬ 
larly liable to an attack. See Disease. 

Apostles’ Creed, “a primitive creed of 
the Christian church, not of apostolic ori¬ 
gin, but a product of the Western Church 
during the first four centuries, not now 
assignable to any individual author. It 
was originally a baptismal confession, and 
was intended to be a popular summary of 
apostolic teaching.” 

THE APOSTLES’ CREED. 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker 
of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ His 
only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the 
Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary; suf¬ 
fered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, 
and buried; He descended Into hell; the third 
day He rose again from the dead; He ascended 
into heaven; and sitteth on the right hand of 
God the Father Almighty; from thence He 
shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catho¬ 
lic Church; the Communion of Saints; the For¬ 
giveness of sins; the Resurrection of the body; 
and the Life everlasting. Amen. 

Apostolic Succession, in church af¬ 
fairs, an uninterrupted succession of bish¬ 
ops, and through them, of priests and dea¬ 
cons, by regular ordination, from the first 
apostles to the present day. According to 
this doctrine Christ ordained his apostles; 
they ordained others; who, in turn, per¬ 
petuated the succession. Bishops, priests, 
and deacons are the three apostolic orders. 
Ordination is 'not valid unless it comes 
in unbroken succession from the hand of 


Christ through the first apostles. The doc¬ 
trine of apostolic succession is held by the 
Roman church, the Greek church, the Ar¬ 
menian church, the Alexandrian church, 
and the Anglican church (Church of Eng¬ 
land). 

Appalachians, ap-pa-la'chi-ans, the 
old mountain system of eastern North 
America, extending from Newfoundland 
to Alabama, a distance of 1,300 miles. It 
is an old system, far older than the Rocky 
Mountains, and so worn by frost, air, and 
water that many of the original lofty 
ridges are now but rolling crests, bound¬ 
ing wide fertile valleys. The only dis¬ 
tinct peaks left are the White Mountains 
of New Hampshire and the Black Moun¬ 
tains of North Carolina. The highest peak 
in the north is Mount Washington, New 
Hampshire, 6,279 feet; the highest peak 
in the south is Mount Mitchell, North 
Carolina, 6,711 feet. The central part, 
particularly the ranges of Pennsylvania 
and Virginia, is known as the Alleghany 
Mountains. The eastern fold of the Alle- 
ghanies is called the Blue Ridge, from 
its hazy blue color as seen in the distance 
by the settlers on the Atlantic coast. Ap¬ 
palachians and Alleghany are Indian 
names. Other parts of the system are 
known as the Catskill, the Green, the 
Smoky, and the Cumberland Mountains 
respectively. The Adirondack Mountains 
are a spur of the Labrador-Hudson Bay 
highlands, not a part of the Appalachians. 
It is thought, however, that the mountains 
of Arkansas and Indian Territory are a 
reappearing spur of the Appalachians. 

The surface of the entire region may be 
understood by supposing it to have been at 
first a low, level plain with rivers running 
toward the Atlantic. In the process of 
mountain making we are to understand 
that this plain rose slowly into gigantic 
wrinkles two or three miles high, running 
parallel to the Atlantic coast. The moun¬ 
tain ridges rose so slowly that the rivers 
were able to keep their course by cutting 
through the wrinkles crosswise as fast as 
they were upheaved, for aught we know 
a fraction of an inch a year. In this way 
the famous gaps of the Potomac, the Dela¬ 
ware, the Susquehanna, and other cros?- 


APPALACHICOLA—APPERCEPTION 


wise valleys were formed. As stated, the 
mountain ridges have been worn down to 
fill up the valleys and to form the At¬ 
lantic coastal plain. Enormous swamps in 
the old plain were filled with vegetation, 
then covered with earth, and finally up- 
heaved in mountain making, where they 
now constitute the coal beds of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Alabama, and other states. 

See articles on the various states and 
rivers in this region. 

Appalachicola, a short but commer¬ 
cially important river of the United States. 
It is formed by the union of the Chatta¬ 
hoochee and Flint rivers in Georgia near 
the northern border of Florida. The main 
river, 100 miles long and navigable in its 
entire course, flows south through Florida 
and empties into Appalachicola Bay in the 
Gulf of Mexico. 

Appendicitis, ap-pen-di-sl'tis, an in¬ 
flammation of a small and apparently use¬ 
less projection which grows from the ex¬ 
tremity of the middle intestine. From its 
position it is thought that this projection 
was at one time useful to man, but it has 
long been disused. 

It was formerly thought that the lodg¬ 
ment of grape seeds and other foreign sub¬ 
stances was the chief cause of the disease. 
It is now known that bruises, strains, 
wounds, and the accumulation of undi¬ 
gested food cause inflammation. Bacteria 
are also considered to be one of the chief 
causes especially when acting upon a con¬ 
dition of lowered vitality of the organism. 
The symptoms of appendicitis are sharp 
colic-like pains, followed by dull pains 
localized in the region of the appendix. 
Fever is usually present and nausea and 
vomiting may occur. The first attacks are 
usually light, but each succeeding attack 
becomes more severe. Whenever appen¬ 
dicitis is suspected a physician should be 
consulted, for the disease has many com¬ 
plications. Removal of the appendix is 
the only sure cure. The operation is no 
longer considered difficult or dangerous. 

Apperception. The mental act of com¬ 
prehending new ideas by relating them to 
ideas already in mind. In other words the 
perception of new ideas in terms of the 
past. When the natives on the Congo 


River saw the first steamboat they called 
it a smoke boat. They were familiar with 
smoke and boats but their experience had 
given them no idea of the power of steam. 
They interpreted the new idea in the light 
of such experience as they could relate to 
it. This law of association is universal. 
Everyone sees the world in the light of 
his own experience. The truths of our 
world are determined by what we see, but 
we, for the most part, see only those things 
which we can join in our line of experience. 
Other things do not exist for us; their 
truths are not a part of our world. A 
farmer, a hunter and a geologist looking 
over the same field would each view it in 
a different light. The farmer would be 
interested in the quality of the soil; would 
estimate the value of the field from its 
probable productiveness. The hunter would 
be interested in looking for shelters for 
game and he might pay no attention to 
the soil. The geologist, ignoring the ex¬ 
periences of the other two, would consider 
the field in the light of geological history, 
try to picture to himself the changes that it 
had undergone in past ages and to estimate 
the geological age in which it was formed. 

Apperception requires the activities of 
all mental powers. Primarily it is an act 
of will. We recall associated ideas, com¬ 
pare these with the new idea and accept 
or reject the new as the result of this com¬ 
parison. If we find that the new idea has 
more points of resemblance than difference 
with our store of knowledge, it is retained; 
if we find little or no resemblance between 
the new and the old, the new is rejected. 

There are numerous causes of difficulty 
in apperception. First of these is lack of 
knowledge with which to make connections. 
Unless we can find some point of contact 
we reject the new idea at once. The second 
difficulty is inability to discover existing 
likeness. This difficulty arises from in¬ 
completeness of our knowledge. Those 
who are able to discover the great underly¬ 
ing principles of thought, theorems, laws, 
are those who succeed best in their voca¬ 
tions. Hence in the acquisition of knowl¬ 
edge we should try to select and fix in 
mind the fundamental principles. This 
truth is well illustrated in the difference 


APPERT—APPIAN WAY 


between the successful and unsuccessful 
lawyer. The former has a comprehensive 
idea of the great principles of law. He is 
consequently able to apply them to the 
case in hand, while the latter, lacking this 
ability, is unable to make a clear presenta¬ 
tion of the matter submitted to his charge. 

Ideas that affect life—religion, politics, 
social customs—are perceived more slowly 
and with greater difficulty than ideas of 
external objects because their acceptance 
causes us to reject any previous ideas that 
are in conflict with them. The influence 
of early training remains with us through 
life and constitutes a powerful factor in 
our apperception of this class of ideas. 

Educational Value. Apperception is 
the step from the known to the unknown. 
New knowledge should be so presented as 
to lead to related knowledge by natural 
and easy steps. 

In teaching new subjects the teacher 
must take into consideration the knowledge 
the child already possesses. The child’s 
first act is to discover the known qualities 
in the new object. 

Since apperception depends upon ac¬ 
quired knowledge, one should gain early 
in life as many ideas as possible, on as 
many different subjects as possible. The 
richer the past experience, the more likely 
are the present responses of the mind to be 
correct. Like nearly all other psycholog¬ 
ical truths the law of apperception has its 
Biblical reference, “To him that hath shall 
be given.” 

Appert, Benjamin Nicolas Marie, 

(1797-1847), a Trench philanthropist and 
educator, born in Paris. He introduced 
into several military schools a system of 
mutual instruction, and conducted without 
charge a school for prisoners at Montaigu. 
It is said that he taught at least 100,000 
soldiers to read and write. 

Appert, Francois (? -1840), a noted 
French technologist, a brother of Benjamin 
Appert. He was the inventor of a method 
of preserving food without chemicals. This 
is described in his work: The Art of Pre¬ 
serving Animal and Vegetable Substances. 
It is the well-known method of placing 
food to be preserved in a can, heating it, 
and sealing hermetically. The French 


government awarded him a prize of 12,000 
francs. 

Appian Way, the most celebrated of 
all the Roman roads. It was begun 312 
B. C. It extended from Rome to Capua, 
thence across Italy to Brundisium, the 
great stopping point for Eastern travelers. 
Like all other Roman roads, the Appian 
Way was constructed for military pur¬ 
poses. This thoroughfare was 350 miles 
in length and from 14 to 18 feet in width, 
with paths for foot passengers on each 
side. The roadway was prepared regard¬ 
less of expense. Rocks were cut through, 
valleys were filled up, rivers were spanned 
with high stone arches, and long embank¬ 
ments were built across swamps. A bed 
was prepared of broken stone cemented 
with lime, and over all huge blocks of 
basaltic lava were fitted together with 
such exactness that the road was like one 
continuous flagstone. Portions of the road 
remain to this day. The cost must have 
been enormous. Historians say that the 
system of Roman roads of which the Ap¬ 
pian Way was a beginning almost bank¬ 
rupted the empire. Troops made great 
progress marching on roads like this. The 
Appian Way was the great highway be¬ 
tween Rome and all points in the East. 
Grecian scholars and artists approached 
Rome by the Appian Way. Cicero, in his 
banishment, fled along this road. For a 
long distance from Rome the way is bor¬ 
dered by the ruins of expensive tombs and 
monumental buildings. The milestone 
nearest Rome was discovered in 1584. 

Kome began her system of magnificent roads 
in 312 13. C. by the Via Appia to the new pos¬ 
sessions in Campania. This was the work of 
the censor Appius Claudius. Afterward all Italy, 
and then the growing empire outside Italy, was 
traversed by a network of such roads. Nothing 
was permitted to obstruct their course. Moun¬ 
tains were tunneled; rivers were bridged; 
marshes were spanned for miles by viaducts 
of masonry. The roads were smoothly paved 
with huge slabs, over some two feet of gravel; 
and they made the best means of communica¬ 
tion the world was to see until the time of 
railroads. They were so carefully constructed, 
too, that their remains, in good condition to-day! 
still “mark the lands where Rome has ruled.” 
They were designed for military purposes; but 
they helped other intercourse and bound Italy 
together socially.—West. 


APPLE 



Apple, a well known fruit. The apple 
tree is a member of the rose family to 
which plums, cherries, peaches, ap r: cots, 
and pears also belong. Bailey says we 
have 1,000 varieties on the American 
market, and a British authority names 
2,000 varieties. Our apples are all derived 
from wild crabs. Most kinds came origi¬ 
nally from Asia Minor and adjacent parts 
of Europe, but other varieties have been 
obtained from the Siberian crab. 

Seeds from the same apple tree produce 
different varieties. An apple grower lately 
exhibited over two hundred varieties, all 
grown from seeds of the same apple tree, 
yet differing in size, color, shape, and taste. 
The only way to get a certain kind of fruit 
is by grafting or budding. The nurseryman 
plants apple seeds, and, when the seedling 
is a year or two old, he cuts it off within 
a few jnches of the ground and splices on 
a young twig from a tree now yielding 
the kind of fruit desired. If he wants a 
russet, he uses russet twigs, and the young 
tree will grow up a russet-producing tree. 
About all the care needed in grafting is 
to bring the fresh surface of the graft 
against a fresh surface of the stock graft¬ 
ed. A clean cut, so that the inner bark 
of the two may meet and allow the pas¬ 
sage of sap, is the main idea. The joint 
may be protected by a ball of clay till 
the union is complete. Instead of grafting 
near the ground the stock may be allowed 
to grow, and twigs may be grafted on 
its branches. Grafts from different trees 
may be used so that one branch of a tree 
may bear one kind of apple and an¬ 
other branch bear apples of another sort 
entirely. An apple raised from seed with¬ 
out grafting is called a seedling. Seed¬ 
lings are usually inferior, but it is by 
means of seedlings that improved varie¬ 
ties are obtained. 

Among the American apples most wide¬ 
ly grown are the pippin, golden russet, 
blue pearmain, northern spy, spitzenberg, 
willow twig, Duchess of Oldenburg, Rhode 
Island greening, gilliflower, wealthy, 
maiden’s blush, winesap, and king. The 
Baldwin and the Ben Davis are put on 
the market in the greatest quantities. In 


point of color, flavor, and keeping qual¬ 
ities the Jonathan is unexcelled. 

In an apple orchard the trees should 
be about forty feet apart to secure the 
best results. It requires ten years of 
thorough cultivation to bring an orchard 
into profitable bearing, but it should con¬ 
tinue to do well for thirty years. All or¬ 
chards should be on elevated ground to 
afford cold air drainage. Cold air is heavy 
and will drain off into a hollow and cause 
a frost there, freeing the orchard from 
the latest and earliest frosts. The worst 
enemies of an orchard are the grubs of 
the codlin moth and the apple scab. Both 
may be met by spraying with arsenical 
poisons. 

Only those who have seen an apple or¬ 
chard in full bloom have an adequate idea 
of what floral beauty and fragrance are. 
Cutting an apple crosswise gives the best 
view of skin, pulp, star-like core, and seeds. 
We are apt to speak of a red apple, but 
apples are of many colors, red, yellow, and 
green. 

Owing to the fact that apple trees bloom 
late, thus escaping late frost, they are 
cultivated farther north (65° N.) than any 
other fruit of the sort. Apples are raised 
very generally throughout Europe, north¬ 
ern India, China, Japan, southern Siberia, 
Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Cape 
Colony, Canada, and the United States. 
The finest apple-producing region in the 
world runs from Lake Michigan east and 
northeast, taking in both shores of Lakes 
Erie and Ontario, to Nova Scotia. Other 
important regions in the United States are 
the foothills of Virginia and the moun¬ 
tain valleys of adjacent states, the Ozark 
and Arkansas region, the plains region, 
and the Pacific coast. Eastern apple 
growers prefer round apples. They ship 
to market in barrels or in bulk loose in 
box cars. Pacific growers favor an apple 
ribbed and pointed at the smaller end. 
They ship in wooden crates holding about 
a bushel. 

The United States apple crop varies 
greatly. Forty-five million barrels may be 
regarded as a large crop. New York usu¬ 
ally leads with an occasional crop of 
20,000,000 bushels. Pennsylvania, Ohio, 


I 


APPLE OF DISCORD—APPRENTICE 


Missouri, Virginia and Illinois follow in 
the order named. The following statistics 
of apples grown in the United States are 
taken from the Government records: 

Barrels , Barrels 

1918 .69,452,000 1920.89,470,000 

1919 .54,624,000 1921.38,752,000 

See Pear; Washington; Burbank. 

Apple of Discord, a golden apple 

noted in Greek mythology. The myth is 
interesting. The gods assembled to cele¬ 
brate the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis. 
Eris, the goddess of discord, was not in¬ 
vited to the feast. Angered by the slight, 
she determined to cause strife. She threw 
into the midst of the gathering a golden 
apple bearing the inscription, “For the 
most beautiful.” Juno, Minerva, and Ve¬ 
nus contended for the prize. Jupiter, not 
wishing to decide so delicate a matter, sent 
the goddesses to Paris, who kept his flocks 
on Mt. Ida. The handsome shepherd 
awarded the apple to Venus. In return 
for this favor Venus aided Paris to win 
the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus. 
Paris carried Helen to Troy. They were 
pursued by Menelaus and thus arose the 
Trojan War. The term, Apple of Dis¬ 
cord, is often used to designate that which 
divides friends and causes foolish conten¬ 
tion. See Paris; Troy. 

Apples of Hesperides. See Hesperi- 

DES. 

Apples of Sodom, an orange-like fruit 
of fair appearance, that crumbles in the 
grasp into a mere handful of ashes; hence 
the figurative use of the expression, Apples 
of Sodom, or Dead Sea Apples, to describe 
that which attracts by outward beauty but 
is really worthless. The apples of Sodom 
belong to the nightshade family, and are 
related, therefore, to the ground cherry, 
the eggplant, the tomato, and other well 
known plants. 

Appleton, Wis., the county seat of 
Outagamie Co. It is on the lower Fox 
River, 100 miles northwest of Milwaukee 
The water passing through the Fox River 
from Lake Winnebago gives power suffi¬ 
cient to supply half of Wisconsin with 
electricity. Dams and canals have been 
constructed on all rapids to utilize power. 
A navigable canal, under U. S. govern¬ 
ment control, allows vessels to pass from 


Green Bay to Lake Winnebago. Appleton 
is noted as a dairying center. It has mod¬ 
ern schools and 2 business colleges, to¬ 
gether with Lawrence College and Law- 
2 business colleges, together with Law¬ 
rence Conservatory of Music. Population, 
1920, 19,561. 

Appomattox, ap'po-mat'tuks, the name 
of a river, a county and a village of Vir¬ 
ginia. The village is of most interest, 
since here at Appomattox Court House, as 
it is known in history, General Lee sur¬ 
rendered to General Grant, April 9, 1865, 
thus ending the Civil War. 

Apprentice, literally, a learner. The 
term is derived from a French word mean¬ 
ing to cnprehend, to “catch on.” In the 
ordinary use of the word an apprentice 
is a young person placed with skilled work¬ 
men to learn a trade, and receive small 
wages. The labor unions of the present 
day are very strict in their rules, not al¬ 
lowing an employer to have more than 
one apprentice usually to four or five work¬ 
men, the number varying, of course, with 
the different trades. In European coun¬ 
tries it was at one time the universal cus¬ 
tom for a father or guardian to bind out 
his boy for a number of years. The lad 
was expected to work for his board and 
clothing. His master was in position to 
treat him humanely or like a slave. Nu¬ 
merous instances are related of apprentices 
marrying into the family and succeeding 
the master in the business, and, on the 
other hand, many instances of extreme 
cruelty are on record. On the comple¬ 
tion of his apprenticeship the young work¬ 
man was entitled usually to a suit of 
clothes, a small sum of money, and possi¬ 
bly the set of tools necessary to carry on 
his trade. Benjamin Franklin was ap¬ 
prenticed to his brother in Boston to learn 
the printing trade, but broke his articles, 
it may be remembered, and ran away to 
Philadelphia. 

In this country apprenticeship has been 
regulated by numerous laws enacted by 
the various states. A minor, that is to say, 
a legal infant, cannot bind himself to an 
apprenticeship or, when formed, dissolve 
an apprenticeship, without the consent of 
his parent or guardian. A boy may be 






APRICOT—AQTJARIUM 


bound until he is twenty-one; a girl until 
she is eighteen. The master takes the 
place of a parent. He may correct or re¬ 
strain an apprentice in any way that would 
be proper for the parent; but his relation 
is a personal one. He has no authority to 
permit a third person to punish his ap¬ 
prentice. Unless an apprentice gives con¬ 
sent he may not be transferred to another 
master or removed to any state other than 
that in which the contract has been made. 
If an apprentice leaves his master without 
consent, and enters into the service of a 
third party, the master is entitled to all 
wages earned. An apprentice may free 
himself from his master by enlisting for 
military service, the claim of the nation 
being held superior to that of the master. 

Apricot, a fine fruit half way between 
a plum and a peach. A native of Armenia, 
or, as some say, of Japan. The apricot 
is fond of the sun, and in Europe is trained 
frequently against stone walls. It blooms 
early, before its leaves come out, and the 
fruit ripens earlier than peaches or plums. 
For this reason the apricot is liable to suf¬ 
fer from early frosts. Otherwise it is as 
hardy as the peach, and may be raised 
under similar conditions. Its chief enemy 
is the curculio, the same insect that at¬ 
tacks the plum and the peach. This in¬ 
sect must be caught on canvas by jarring 
the tree, and burned. The apricot is grown 
very generally in peach regions. It is 
one of the leading fruits of California, 
where it was introduced at the Spanish 
missions as early as 1792. 

The total apricot yield of the United 
States for 1919 was 6,130,086 bushels, of 
which California produced more than 
6,000,000 bushels. The greater part of 
California’s yield of this fruit is shipped 
in the dried or canned form. Apri¬ 
cots are raised from the seed. The young 
plant is grafted during the second sum¬ 
mer. Apricot grafts are set also on plum 
and peach seedlings. The apricot is a 
rapid grower. The shoots require thinning 
out, and it is usually necessary to remove 
a large part of the young fruit to secure 
the best results. 

April, the fourth month of the year. 
The name is from a Latin word meaning 


to open. The name is given appropriately 
to the month of opening buds. It contains 
thirty days. The first day of April is 
known as April Fool’s Day. It is tra¬ 
ditionally a day of playing harmless jokes. 
In English-speaking countries one who 
is imposed upon is called an April fool; 
in France, an April fish; in Scotland, the 
term frequently applied is a gowk. Cham¬ 
bers suggests that an appropriate errand 
for the day is sending one to the library 
for the life of Adam’s grandfather. A 
typical American diversion of the day is 
nailing a pocketbook to the sidewalk, or at¬ 
taching it to a string, so that it may be 
jerked away when the passing pedestrian 
stoops to pick it up. The origin of the day 
is not clear, possibly French, but, however 
that may be, it is just as well for one who 
falls into a snare to take the matter good- 
naturedly. 

Apteryx, ap'te-riks, a singular bird of 
New Zealand. The name is Greek, sig¬ 
nifying without wings, for its wings are 
reduced to mere stumps. It is allied to the 
ostrich and the emu. It lives amid the 
ferns. It is an awkward, wingless, tailless 
bird about the size of a domestic fowl, 
and is covered with streaked brown and 
gray hair-like feathers. It does not see 
well by day. The nostrils are situated in 
the very tip of the bill, which is flexible 
like that of a woodcock, to which its man¬ 
ner of probing the ground for worms, and 
habit of feeding at morning and evening 
twilight, suggest a farther resemblance. 
The female lays two smooth greenish- 
white eggs, larger than those of a goose, 
in a scantily-lined nest at the end of a 
burrow dug in soft ground. During the 
middle of the day the apteryx sleeps, rolled 
up in a ball, or stands at rest apparently 
leaning on its bill, the tip of which touches 
the ground. There are several species in* 
New Zealand and adjacent islands. These 
birds are much sought after for food by 
the natives as well as by white men. The 
latter have introduced hunting with dogs, 
and will soon exterminate this curious bird. 

Aquarium, a tank of water for live 
plants and animals. An aquarium is not 
expensive nor hard to keep up. It may 
be a large glass receptacle or a wooden 


AQUATIC—AQUEDUCT 


box with glass ends. Put in an inch of 
sand, a few stones for shelter, some snails, 
some water drawn with a dipping tube 
from a weedy pond bottom for tiny ani¬ 
mals, a minnow or two, and a tadpole. 
Root some water plants in the sand to 
purify the water, and let a chip float on 
the surface. Keep it in the light, but 
not in the sun, and you have an aquarium 
to experiment with. Country schoolteach¬ 
ers sometimes convert a washtub into an 
aquarium with great success. Some high 
schools and nearly all colleges and uni¬ 
versities possess aquaria in connection with 
their botany and zoology departments. En¬ 
tire rooms, or even an entire building, 
may be used in connection with natural his¬ 
tory museums or biological stations. 

One of the largest and most beautiful 
salt-water aquaria in the world is at Na¬ 
ples, Italy. It occupies the ground floor 
of a building more than 100 feet long. 
Glass tanks, reaching from the floor to the 
ceiling, are built into the walls. Salt wa¬ 
ter is being forced constantly into these 
tanks from the sea. Each tank is num¬ 
bered, only animals representing a certain 
marine type are placed in each; e. g., in 
one, only spiny skinned animals are seen; 
in another worms only; in still another 
bony fishes only. Each tank is designed 
to furnish the conditions or environment 
to which the animals are accustomed in 
their free state in the sea. Therefore one 
sees grottoes, rocks, variously colored 
sand, sticks of wood, debris, green, red, 
and brown plants, empty shells, etc., as 
the furniture of the tanks. Some of the 
animals are themselves very highly colored, 
red, green, yellow, blue; some are all of 
one color; others are spotted, striped, or 
speckled. The observer sees them moving 
about him in much the same way as if 
he had himself been lowered into the sea, 
and the plants and animals left in their 
accustomed places. 

Aquatic, a term applied to plants and 
animals. It means living in the water, 
yet it is seldom used of plants or animals 
that live wholly in the water. We call 
all water fowl aquatic, yet we should 
hardly apply the term to fishes. Water 
lilies are typical aquatic plants, yet they 


bloom above water. The green thread¬ 
like algae of fresh water and the sea weeds 
of the ocean live wholly in or under wa¬ 
ter, yet w r e should not speak of them ordi¬ 
narily as aquatic plants. See Water 
Lily; Water Hyacinth; Beaver. 

Aqueduct, an artificial conduit or 
channel for carrying water. In one sense 
of the word a canal or ditch, or even a 
water pipe, is an aqueduct; but, as used, 
the term refers to extensive watertight 
channels or flumes built, it may be, through 
tunnels and led across valleys on masonry, 
that an abundant stream of pure moun¬ 
tain water may be brought into a city. 
Such a system is possible when a city is 
situated on comparatively low ground. 

China still uses aqueducts built centuries 
before the Christian era. Traces of an¬ 
cient aqueducts are to be found in Palmyra 
of the Desert, at Jerusalem, and at Athens. 
Ancient Rome was supplied with water 
from the Apennines by nine aqueducts. 
Three of them are still in use. One of 
these was forty-five miles long. The Mar- 
cian aqueduct is carried across the Cam- 
pagna, for six miles at a stretch, on arches 
of masonry. An aqueduct at Nimes, in 
France, crosses a valley 180 feet deep on 
three tiers of arches. Each tier is nar¬ 
rower than the one below. The entire 
structure is built of hewn stone, without 
cement save in the waterway at the top. 
One of the Roman emperors brought wa¬ 
ter sixty miles to conquered Carthage 
through an aqueduct resting on arches of 
stone work. It still supplies Tunis with 
water. A much admired aqueduct at Se¬ 
govia, Spain, also built by the Romans, 
has in some parts two tiers of arches, one 
above the other, each 100 feet in height. 
Water tunnels of antiquity are equally 
admirable. A water pipe in Lycia, Asia 
Minor, consists of cubical blocks of stone, 
each pierced with a hole nine inches in 
diameter. The stones are cemented to¬ 
gether to form a pipe a mile in length. 
Aqueducts in ruins and aqueducts in serv¬ 
ice are among the sights of many a Eu¬ 
ropean city. 

One of the most celebrated American 
aqueducts is the Croton, leading from the 
river of that name thirty-eight miles into 


AQUINAS—ARABIA 


New York City. It crosses the Harlem 
river on a bridge 150 feet high. Irrigation 
canals, true aqueducts, are built on a large 
scale in the West. 

The Catskill Aqueduct, completed in 
1913, is 92 miles long and adds 500,000,- 
000 gallons daily to New York’s water 
supply. The Los Angeles Aqueduct, 235 
miles long, is the longest in the world. 
Its head is 3,800 feet above sea level, and 
water flows to all parts of the city by 
gravity. The water irrigates thousands of 
acres of land and furnishes power besides 
supplying the city. 

As to the main aqueducts, which supplied 
Rome with a daily volume of 54,000,000 cubic 
feet of water, it would have been impossible 
to substitute metal pipes for channels of mason¬ 
ry, because the Romans did not know cast- 
iron, and no pipe except of cast-iron could have 
supported such enormous pressure.—Lanciani’s 
Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discov¬ 
eries, p. 60. 

See Irrigation; Siphon; Pump; Wa¬ 
terworks. 

Aquinas, Thomas, a-kwl'nas (about 
1227-1274), a learned Christian philoso¬ 
pher. The name Aquinas is from his birth¬ 
place Aquino, Italy. He was of noble 
family, and was educated at a monastery 
and at the University of Naples. When 
seventeen years old he became a Dominican 
monk and devoted his life to teaching in 
various cities and to writing. His disciples 
called him the “Angelic Doctor.” Aquinas’ 
system of philosophy was based on the idea 
that man has two distinct sources of knowl¬ 
edge : revelation, of which Scripture and 
church traditions are the channels, and 
human reason, the channels of which are 
the various systems of philosophy, espe¬ 
cially those of Aristotle and Plato. He 
aimed to prove that there was no incompat¬ 
ibility between these two sources of knowl¬ 
edge, since in the last resort both came 
from the one absolute source, God. The 
name of Aquinas is especially remembered 
in connection with the long and bitter con¬ 
troversy between him and Duns Scotus 
while scholasticism was at its height. 
Aquinas’ writings are in Latin and all the 
earlier works lead up to the one great work 
Summa Tlieologiae, left incomplete at 
its author’s death. The intention of this 


work was that it should be the sum of all 
known learning, systematized and subordi¬ 
nated to the dictates of the church. Aqui¬ 
nas was canonized by Pope John XXII, 
and is known often as Saint Thomas 
Aquinas. See Scotus, Duns; Scholas¬ 
ticism. 

Arabia, a-ra'bi-a, the most southwest¬ 
erly peninsula of Asia, most of which lies 
between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. 
It is estimated that a third of it is un¬ 
known to the Christian world. The esti¬ 
mated area is 1,200,000 square miles; the 
population is about 7,500,000. The soil 
is capable of supporting only a sparse 
population unless irrigated. 

Previous to 1914 Turkey had possessions 
in the peninsula, so had England; but most 
of the territory was held by Arab tribes 
who followed their sheiks as nomads. Pal¬ 
estine, located on the coast of the Mediter¬ 
ranean, as well as Arabia proper, belonged 
to Turkey. Now the former is an inde¬ 
pendent state under the protection of 
Britain, and the latter, united into one gov¬ 
ernment to include the desert interior and 
the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys, where 
Babylon and Nineveh once stood, has 
sworn allegiance to the King of the 
Hedjaz, an Arab. His third son was an 
imposing figure at the Peace Conference. 
The new Arabia is under British mandate. 
The capital is Aleppo. The unification of 
Arabia is, however, nominal. There are 
a dozen or more autonomies; and also 
numerous tribal communities, recognizing 
allegiance to none but their local chiefs. 
These communities are settled, half-settled 
or nomadic, according largely to the na¬ 
ture of the territory they inhabit. There 
are, for instance, great stretches of Arabia 
in which a settled mode of life is impos¬ 
sible; and a body of people that is for¬ 
ever changing its abode is well nigh unable 
to recognize a fixed governing center. 

The surface of Arabia may be divided 
into three regions. A comparatively nar¬ 
row coast region of sands, valleys, cliffs, 
and ranges, partly barren and partly fer¬ 
tile, runs around the entire coast from 
Mt. Sinai to the head of the Persian Gulf. 
Seen from passing ships, this exterior re¬ 
gion is in general forbidding. This is the 


ARABIA 


Arabia Felix of sacred geography, — a re¬ 
gion of the date, the cocoanut palm, and 
the famous coffee originally exported 
from the port of Mocha. It produces 
aromatic plants and substances such as 
aloes, benzoin, balsam, frankincense, gum 
arabic, and myrrh, giving rise to Milton’s 
oft quoted words: 

Sabean odours from the spicy shore 

« Of Araby the Blest. 

Beans, rice, lentils, tobacco, melons, 
saffron, olives, poppy or opium, sesame, 
and castor oil are produced along the va¬ 
rious valleys and terraces of this part of 
the peninsula. 

Within this broken border is found a 
second belt of similar extent. It varies 
in width, but, except where interrupted 
by the fertile district about Mecca, this re¬ 
gion is a featureless desert of shifting 
sands and scanty vegetation, like that of 
the Sahara. This desert belt, never crossed, 
it is said, by the foot of Greek or Roman 
conqueror, shelters a third large, more ele¬ 
vated interior region containing large 
areas of fertile soil well adapted to pas¬ 
turage. 

This grassy region is the home of the 
Bedouin or unsettled Arab. Like their 
ancestors, the interior Arabs are nomadic 
in character. Their wealth consists in 
horses, cattle, and camels, and flocks of 
sheep and goats. They live in tents, and 
move with their flocks from place to place 
according to the season. The camel is 
described in a special article under that 
head. The ownership of the Arabian 
horse is confined entirely to the chiefs. It 
is considered beneath an Arab’s dignity to 
sell his horse. Colts are brought up with 
the family. The genuine Arab horse is 
most frequently gray, then chestnut and 
white or sorrel, but never a dark bay. It 
is claimed that the Arabian horse can carry 
its owner at a gallop for twenty-four hours 
without requiring a drink. 

From the seashore to the interior Ara¬ 
bia presents a great variety of surface. 
The tender-eyed gazelle, the fleetest and 
most graceful of the antelope kind, is still 
found in Arabia. The long-maned lion, 
the ape, tiger, panther, lynx, wolf, jackal, 
hyena, black-faced monkey, kangaroo rat 


hare, mountain goat, and wild ass are 
found in one part or another of Arabia. 
Of birds, the ostrich, hunted for its feath¬ 
ers and eggs, eagles, vultures, bustards, 
sparrowhawks, partridges, rock pigeons, 
guinea fowls, ducks, cranes, larks, spar¬ 
rows, finches, thrushes, and parrots are 
found in various provinces. Scorpions and 
centipedes are common in the rocks and 
arid regions; while bees store their honey 
in the rock crevices of the mountains. 
Flies, mosquitoes, ants, and spiders are 
considered unusually troublesome. Parts 
of Arabia are also devastated by flights of 
locusts related to the Rocky Mountain 
species that at times alights in the fields of 
the Mississippi Valley. 

Arabia has played an important part in 
history. It has given the world the Ara¬ 
bian horse, the Arabian camel, the Moslem 
religion, and has sent forth the Saracenic 
armies that overran Syria, Asia Minor, 
Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. 

The Arabic language is akin to the Per¬ 
sian and the Hebrew. At one time the Ar¬ 
abs were the chief scholars of the world, 
and possessed the largest libraries. The 
eminent physicians, astronomers, and 
mathematicians of the day were Arabians. 
In name as well as origin, algebra is Ara¬ 
bic. Bagdad on the Tigris and Cordova 
in Spain were famous sites of Arabic learn¬ 
ing, and were thronged by the students of 
Asia and the western world before the great 
universities of Europe had been thought 
of, or were even possible. 

Almanac, zenith, azimuth, and nadir; 
algebra, zero, and cipher; alcohol, coffee, 
and sherbet; elixir and syrup; sofa, cot¬ 
ton, and mohair; artichoke, arsenal, assas¬ 
sin, fakir, hegira, sumach, jar, tariff, amber, 
and Moslem, are all from the Arabic, 
indicating the extent to which we are in¬ 
debted to the Arabic scholars of the Mid¬ 
dle Ages. The influence of Arabic writers 
upon the literature of Europe has also been 
very great. Translations of the Arabian 
Nights' Entertainments are still the delight 
of young folks. For extravagant, fairy¬ 
land effects, the Moslem architecture of the 
Alhambra is without a rival. 

See Mohammed; Mecca; Aden; Al¬ 
hambra ; Bagdad ; Asia. 


ARABIAN EDUCATION 


Arabian Education. Following the 
conquests of the armies of the Moham¬ 
medans in the seventh and eighth centuries 
A. D., the conquerors turned their atten¬ 
tion to learning. Before Mohammed the 
Arabian was ignorant, a lover of the 
horse, hospitable, and warlike. The great 
prophet himself could neither read nor 
write. He had no confidence in worldly 
knowledge and made the study of the 
liberal sciences punishable by death. How¬ 
ever, in two centuries after his death, the 
Arabians were the teachers of the world. 

The Arabians were brought into con¬ 
tact with what learning there was through 
their victories. Leaders of armies met 
philosophers and grammarians. The sci¬ 
ence of medicine was especially interesting 
to the Arabians. When they captured 
Alexandria one John Philoponus showed 
his friendship for the conquering general 
by translating into the Arabic language 
extracts from the books of Galen on the 
bites of poisonous serpents and the cure 
for them. He also composed a book on 
Aristotle in the language of the Arabs. 
The kalifs in the beginning were not so 
enlightened. While it may not be true 
that one of them directed the burning of 
the great library with the remark that if 
the books agreed with the Koran they were 
not needed and if they did not they 
should be burned, the currency of the 
story shows the Arabian’s lack of appre¬ 
ciation for learning. But in less than 
fifty years after the death of Mohammed 
the kalifs were enthusiastic advocates of 
learning. A decree was made that beside 
every mosque there should be built a 
schoolhouse. In Spain, in Egypt, in Ara¬ 
bia, there grew up universities numbering 
their students by the thousand. The Nes- 
torian Christians, driven out of Constanti¬ 
nople for heresy, settled in Persia and 
turned their attention to medicine. They 
founded the medical college of Condisa- 
pore which sent out numbers of skilled 
physicians. Kalifs who fell ill sent for 
these doctors and thus came under the in¬ 
fluence of Greek learning, for the Nesto- 
rians were eager cultivators of Greek sci¬ 
ence. 

One of the kalifs, El Mamoun, threw 


the Nestorian, Honain Ben Ishac, into 
prison for refusing to teach the kalif a 
prescription by which the kalif might kill 
any enemy who became troublesome. Af¬ 
ter a year Honain was summoned before 
the kalif and was given his choice of death 
or compliance with the request of the 
kalif. The faithful physician declined to 
comply; whereat the kalif assured him 
that the demand was merely a test of his 
integrity. Said the kalif, “What hindered 
thee from granting our request, when thou 
sawest us appear so ready to perform what 
we had threatened?” “Two things,” re¬ 
plied Honain, “my religion, which com¬ 
mands me to do good to my enemies, and 
my profession, instituted purely for the 
benefit of mankind.” “Two noble laws!” 
exclaimed the kalif. Honain was loaded 
with gifts and made court physician. 

As was the custom with great conquer¬ 
ors, Haroun El Raschid traveled with a 
hundred men of science in his train. His 
son, El Mamoun, was the greatest patron 
of learning among the kalifs. No religious 
or race prejudice prevented him from se¬ 
curing every scholar upon whom he might 
impose labors and rewards. Hungerford 
says of El Mamoun: “By such measures 
he strove to make Bagdad the residence of 
the choicest among the learned. His 
court took on the character of a great 
academy. The provinces of his empire 
were searched for precious manuscripts; 
his collectors were busy everywhere,—in 
Syria, in Armenia, in Egypt. Governors 
of provinces had instructions to further 
the work. Collections of books were taken 
as a tribute. Among the terms of peace 
with the Greek emperor, Michael the 
Stammerer, was the exaction of a series 
of the manuscripts of Greek authors. Vast 
numbers of books were brought from all 
quarters to Bagdad, constituting a library 
which represented the accumulated learn¬ 
ing of the East. These contributions of 
the nations to Arabian enlightenment were 
borne on the backs of hundreds of camels, 
which entered the city laden with their 
treasures. Such a collection required nu¬ 
merous laborers to inspect, arrange and 
classify, transcribe and translate.” 

It is sad to relate that all the original 


ARABIAN LITERATURE—ARABIAN SEA 


manuscripts were burned. Just why this 
was done is not known. Probably the 
Arabs looked upon all other nations as 
beneath consideration, and there was some 
excuse for this in the prevailing ignorance 
of the times among western peoples. 

There was little evidence of aristocracy 
in these old schools. Sons of mechanics 
as well as the noble born were welcome. 
Endowments of immense sums were con¬ 
tributed to the support of the universities. 
After studying books of foreign authorship 
the Arabs became authors. A dictionary 
in sixty volumes, histories, scientific works, 
encyclopedias, were among their writings. 
They introduced our decimal notation, 
and were learned in other branches of 
mathematics. 

There is little account coming down to 
us of the schools of the common people, 
the primary schools of that day. Prob¬ 
ably there was no such school as one of our 
grade schools in all the Mohammedan 
dominions. Even the universities were dis¬ 
mantled when the political supremacy of 
the Arab was ended. Hungerford says: 
“While the time of its endurance is not 
short,—for its sway lasted through cen¬ 
turies,—it goes, nevertheless, as it came, 
suddenly. One wakes from the recital of 
all Arabian history as from a dream. With 
the passing away of other glories the glory 
o r letters fades so completely that it is 
hard to realize their former supremacy 
over vast territories and over millions of 
active minds. The bustle and busy search¬ 
ing, the collecting and transcribing and 
recording, the piling up of libraries and 
accumulation of treatises covering every 
department of learning, ceases. The intel¬ 
lectual career of Islam is finished. In 
the history of the world the movement of 
the Arabian mind is like that of the Bed¬ 
ouin horde, suddenly appearing upon the 
desert, sweeping with dash and vigor over 
the sands, and vanishing again, leaving 
the observer surprised, wondering, and 
questioning.”—A. W. Rankin, Univer¬ 
sity of Minnesota. 

Arabian Literature. See Literature. 

Arabian Nights* Entertainments, a 

famous collection of tales written origi¬ 
nally in the Arabic language. The author 


is unknown, but it is supposed that they 
were composed about the time of the dis¬ 
covery of America. A French professor 
traveling in Asia found a manuscript copy 
early in the eighteenth century, and trans¬ 
lated the tales into French. They were 
soon published in English and in other 
languages of Europe. Other Arabic man¬ 
uscripts of the tales have been found since. 

The stories themselves are held together 
in a flimsy tale running to the effect that 
Queen Scheherazade, who was to be be¬ 
headed in the morning, began telling her 
liege lord an interesting tale which she 
broke off in the middle. Rather than miss 
the rest of the story, he deferred her exe¬ 
cution until the following day; but re¬ 
peating her tactics, she put off the evil 
day until one thousand and one nights had 
passed, each with its appropriate tale or 
portion of a tale. These tales are very 
delightful, and throw not a little light on 
the manners and customs of the Arabians. 

Some of the better known are The Sto¬ 
ry of the Porter; The Ladies of Bagdad, 
and the Three Calenders; The Story of the 
City of Brass; The Story of the Three 
Sisters; Abou Hassan, the Wag; Aladdin 
and the Wonderful Lamp; The Sultan of 
the Genii; Prince Houssain and the Car¬ 
pet ; Sinbad the Sailor; The Barber; The 
Man Who Repented When It Was Too 
Late. The Story of Ali Baba and the 
Forty Thieves is usually included in the 
collection, but it was not in the original 
manuscript. The following stanza from 
Tennyson’s Recollections of the Arabian 
Nights is expressive of the impressions 
made upon the mind of an imaginative 
boy by these weird eastern tales: 

When the breeze of a joyful dawn blew free 
In the silken sail of infancy, 

The tide of time flow’d back with me. 

The forward-flowing tide of time; 

And many a sheeny summer morn, 

Adown the Tigris I was borne, 

By Ba^dat’s shrines of fretted gold, 

High walled gardens green and old; 

True Mussulman was I and sworn, 

For it was in the golden prim^ 

Of good Haroun Alraschid. 

Arabian Sea, that part of the Indian 
Ocean lying north of an imaginary line 
stretching between Cape Comorin, the 
southernmost point of Hindustan, and 


ARACHNE—ARAL 


Cape Guardafui, the most easterly point 
of Africa. The sea proper lies between 
Hindustan and Arabia; but the Gulf of 
Aden, with its extention, the Red Sea, and 
the Persian Gulf are arms of the Arabian 
Sea. Ships passing through the Suez Ca¬ 
nal must cross the Arabian Sea to reach 
southern Asia. Bombay is the chief port 
on the Arabian Sea. The chief islands are 
Sokotra and the Laccadive Islands. 

Arachne, a-rak'ne, in Greek legend, a 
Lydian maiden who presumed to compete 
with Minerva in the art of weaving. As 
a punishment, she was changed into a spi¬ 
der. The story has been told by the Latin 
Ovid in a poem entitled The Punishment 
of Arachne. Edmund Spenser has retold 
•the tale in Muiopotmos, from which the 
following stanzas are quoted: 

Amongst these leaves she made a butterfly 
With excellent device and wondrous slight. 
Fluttering among the olives wantonly, 

That seemed to live, so like it was in sight; 

The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie, 

The silken down with which his back is dight, 

H is broad outstretched horns, his hairy thighs. 
His glorious colors, and his glistening eyes. 
Which, when Arachne saw, as overlaid 
And mastered with workmanship so rare 
She stood astonished long, ne aught gainsaid; 
And with fast-fixed eyes on her did stare 
And by her silence, sign of one dismayed, 

The victory did yield her as her share; 

Yet did she inly fret and felly burn, 

And all her blood to poisonous rancor turn. 

Garrick has also alluded to Arachne in 
a short poem, Upon a Lady’s Embroidery: 
Arachne once, as poets tell, 

A goddess at her art defied, 

And soon the daring mortal fell 
The hapless victim of her pride. 

Oh, then, beware Arachne’s fate; 

Be prudent, Chloe, and submit, 

For you’ll most surely meet her hate, 

Who rival both her art and wit. 

See Spider. 

Arago, a'ra-go, Frangois Jean (1786- 
1853), a French scientist. Though dead 
little over half a century, Arago is a 
marked example of the way in which emi¬ 
nent men and eminent services pass from 
the public mind. As a student, director of 
the Observatory of Paris, editor of the 
Annals of Chemistry and Physics, member 
of the Chamber of Deputies, Minister of 
War and Navy, professor in the Polytech- 
nical School and secretary of the French 


Academy of Sciences, he was a brilliant, 
able, prominent figure for half a century. 
With the celebrated Biot he completed the 
measurements of a geographical meridian 
on which the scientific meter is based. 
Among his contributions to scientific 
knowledge are researches regarding the 
polar snows of Mars, the belts of Jupiter 
and Saturn, sunspots, the effects of atmos¬ 
pheric refraction, the oscillations of the 
magnetic needle, the connection between 
the aurora borealis and magnetism, the 
creation of a magnet by the use of the 
galvanic current, the polarization of light, 
the construction of a polariscope, the in¬ 
terference of colors, and the velocity and 
the wave theory of light. In the discharge 
of legislative and administrative duties to 
which he was called, Arago was influential 
in establishing public education, in the de¬ 
velopment of railroads and telegraphs, in 
improving the navigation of the Seine, and 
in the boring of artesian wells. He abol¬ 
ished flogging in the navy, and brought 
about the downfall of negro slavery in the 
French colonies. He was a brilliant writ¬ 
er, an eloquent speaker, a public spirited 
citizen, and, as we have seen, contributed 
in no small degree to the advancement 
of science. 

A'ragon, an ancient kingdom of Spain. 
It lay on the French border, midway from 
the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean. 
Saragossa on the Ebro was the capital. 
Aragon grew from 1035 to 1469 to be one 
of the two important kingdoms of Spain. 
Castile was the other. In the last named 
year the two kingdoms were united by the 
marriage of their sovereigns, Ferdinand of 
Aragon and Isabella of Castile. See Cas¬ 
tile; Spain. 

Aral, ar'al, a vast inland sea of Asia, 
situated in Russian Turkestan. It is a 
shallow body of salt water with an area 
of 35,000 square miles. It is fourteen 
times as large as Great Salt Lake. The 
Aral receives several tributaries, the prin¬ 
cipal being the Oxus, but it has no outlet, 
and owing to the excessive evaporation of 
the hot country in which it lies, it is 
shrinking in size. At one time it may 
have been an arm of the Caspian Sea, now 
200 miles distant. Its surface is 160 feet 


ARARAT—ARBITRATION 


above the ocean and 245 feet above the 
Caspian. Its waters are full of fish. The 
shores are for the most part salty wastes. 
Being without harbors and subject to vio¬ 
lent storms, the Aral is not safe for navi¬ 
gation. A few fishing craft and Russian 
steamships venture on its waters. 

Ararat, ar'a-rat, a region in Armenia. 
In the Armenian tongue the name Ararat 
signifies “the plains of the Aryans,” and 
is given to a fertile plateau in the moun¬ 
tainous region of Armenia. The writer 
of Genesis viii: 4, states that the ark “rest¬ 
ed upon the mountains of Ararat,” yet the 
custom has become fixed of restricting the 
name Ararat to a single volcanic moun¬ 
tain that rises to an altitude of 17,212 
feet, or 14,000 feet above the plateau on 
which it stands. The mountain is the 
highest in western Asia. It is clothed 
with birches at its base, and rises through 
zones of decreasing vegetation to perpet¬ 
ual snow. Tournefort and other French 
botanists visited this region, as Ararat is 
not only higher but further south than Mt. 
Blanc. They found that as one ascends 
a mountain, he passes in a few hours’ time 
through the same belts of vegetation that 
he finds in traveling for months toward 
the north pole. As they -went up Ararat, 
they found the vegetation shorter and 
more scrubby until, as they neared the 
snow line, vegetation consisted of plants 
similar to those growing in frigid zones. 
About 1840 an eruption of sulphuric va¬ 
pors burst from the mountain, and an earth¬ 
quake shook vast masses of rock down its 
sides. A convent, a chapel, and a village 
of 1,000 inhabitants with pleasant gar¬ 
dens, were overwhelmed beneath a mighty 
mass of rock, debris, and ice. Mount Ara¬ 
rat is a corner post between Turkey in 
Asia, Persia, and Russia. It is called by 
many names, as “Giant of Armenia,” 
“Noah’s Mountain,” “Dome of Eternal 
Ice,” etc., and is said to be one of the most 
beautiful and impressive mountains in the 
world. See Alps; Tournefort. 

Arbitration, International, the settle¬ 
ment of a dispute between nations by an 
impartial court. The rapid substitution of 
this rational process in the place of war is 
perhaps the greatest step in advance that 


marks the close of the nineteenth century. 
To Americans it is of peculiar interest. 
To submit the conflicting claims of nations 
(as of individuals) not to brute force, but 
to rational adjudication, is not more than 
Christian; it is not more than common 
sense; but, besides being in a measure both 
Christian and sensible, it is in its origin 
distinctly American,—as this article will 
show. 

Old-World philosophers had taught for 
centuries that war was not only inevitable, 
but also beneficent and right. Thus 
Dante, the mightiest intellect of the Mid¬ 
dle Ages, w T rote in defense even of the 
absurd folly of private war, or “trial by 
combat,”—when God was always solemn¬ 
ly invoked to “show the right.” 

Whatever is acquired by single combat, is ac* 
quired with Right. For when human judgment 
fails, either because it is wrapped in darkness 
or because it has not the aid of a judge, then 
. . . recourse must be had to Him who so 
loved Justice that, by the shedding of His own 
blood, He met her full demands. . . . This end 
is accomplished when, with the free consent of 
the participants, ... the judgment of God is 
sought through a trial of bodily and spiritual 
strength. 

In spite of such attempts to bolster up 
that judicial duel by pious phrases about 
the “judgment of God,” the custom dis¬ 
appeared soon after Dante’s day, in the 
light of advancing knowledge and with the 
establishment of a more efficient system of 
courts in European countries. But for 
quarrels between nations the same language 
continued. Thus Lord Bacon wrote (sev¬ 
enteenth century) : 

Wars are no massacres and confusions, but 
the highest trial of right, when princes and 
states which acknowledge no superior on earth, 
■put themselves on the judgment of God for the 
deciding of their controversies by such success 
as it may please Him to give to either side. 

Bacon’s day no longer used this silly 
defense for small fights, between Smith 
and Jones, but it still thought such im¬ 
pious defense good for big fights, between 
France and England. In our day it grows 
more and more impossible, by such lan¬ 
guage, to excuse ourselves, and to throw 
our own responsibility upon God; but the 
old excuse has been cast into vaguer form, 
—as by the English statesman, Sir Charles 


ARBITRATION 


Dilke, who blandly assures us, in his re¬ 
cent book upon Problems of National De¬ 
fense, that war is inevitable because it is 
“analogous to litigation in private life.” 

War analagous to litigation! Of course 
war is analogous not to modern, peaceful 
litigation,—an attempt to find the right by 
rational, careful investigation,—but, at 
best, to the barbarous and outgrown “trial 
by battle.” And, just as for individuals, 
in the upward progress of humanity, the 
feud and the duel have given way to peace¬ 
ful litigation, so, for nations, war is now 
giving way to arbitration. That is the 
only analogy the case admits. 

Not that anyone thinks we can always 
avoid war yet. We can not always avoid 
private fights. It is still necessary now 
and then for the gentleman to defend him¬ 
self or another from the thug. If it were 
not for the policeman and the law-court 
around the corner, this sort of thing would 
be necessary oftener, and pretty good men 
would sometimes find fists or knives the 
only arguments to settle their disputes. 
Pretty good nations in the past have had 
no other way, because for them there have 
been no peaceful agencies at hand. States¬ 
men are now busied in supplying something 
of the kind,—not expecting absolutely to 
abolish war, but hoping confidently to 
make it less excusable, and so less frequent. 

In the earlier development of this sen¬ 
sible process, the United States holds a 
proud place. America stands for Peace. 
This emphasis upon peace is one of her 
chief contributions to the world. So 
marked was the American opposition to 
a war policy, even in the infancy of our 
nation, that Thomas Jefferson, despairing 
of peace for the warring Europe of his 
day, wished us to cut ourselves off from the 
Old World that we might the better dedi¬ 
cate this New World to peace. “When we 
are strong enough to give the law for the 
continent,” he wrote, “we may formally 
demand a median of partition through the 
ocean, on the hither side of which no Eu¬ 
ropean gun shall ever be heard, nor an 
American on the other,—while, during the 
rage of eternal war in Europe, within our 
regions the lion and the lamb shall lie 
down in peace.” 


This favorite thought of Jefferson’s was 
soon to find recognition, in part at least, in 
our national policy; for it is this which 
makes the idealistic element in our Monroe 
Doctrine (see article). Even before that 
doctrine was proclaimed, our country, with 
England, and at our suggestion, gave to 
the world the first great illustration of 
practical disarmament,—in the “Conven¬ 
tion of 1817,” just after the War of 1812. 
In this memorable compact the two coun¬ 
tries agreed that neither would maintain 
war-vessels on the Great Lakes. The 
agreement has been kept, spite of intrigues 
in Congress year after year by greedy ship¬ 
builders and jingo politicians; and, as a 
result, for the century since, across those 
northern waters which unite the two lands, 
the opposite shores have smiled in constant 
friendliness,—when, under Old-World 
conditions, there must have frowned scores 
of grim fortresses thronged with hostile 
soldiery eager to pot one another. Indeed 
the whole history of American diplomacy 
has been one consistent effort to lessen the 
waste of war to non-combatants, and to 
lessen the likelihood of war itself, and to 
extend (sometimes to invent) the more 
beneficent principles of international law. 
Even our wanton aggression in our one un¬ 
just war was partially redeemed by a sol¬ 
emn pledge in the treaty of peace with 
Mexico (1848), that in future we would 
settle differences with our weaker neighbor 
by arbitration. 

That device, of international arbitration, 
was then some half a century old, and it 
was practically an American invention,— 
the noblest product of the heart and brain 
of an inventive people. A score of years 
before the words just quoted from Jeffer¬ 
son were written, Benjamin Franklin said: 

We make great improvements daily in natu¬ 
ral philosophy. There is one improvement I 
wish in moral philosophy,—namely, the discov¬ 
ery [invention] of a plan that would induce 
and oblige nations to settle their disputes with¬ 
out first cutting one another’s throats. . . . 
When will human intelligence be sufficiently 
improved to see the advantage of this? . . . 
When shall we grow wise enough to substitute 
arbitration for war? 

This is the first expression of the kind 
from a practical statesman. Franklin did 


ARBITRATION 


not think it needful to take high moral 
ground: it was a matter of common sense. 
To the shrewd and kindly author of the 
maxims of “Poor Richard,” to the scientist 
who had snatched from the storm-cloud 
the secret of the lightning, to the practiced 
diplomat trained in all the wiles of Euro¬ 
pean courts, war was “folly,”—not Bacon’s 
or Dante’s pious appeal to the judgment of 
God; not Dilke’s approved and necessary 
form of “litigation”; but mere folly, and 
inevitable only so long as human intelli¬ 
gence remained too unimproved “to see the 
advantage” of arbitration. 

Franklin wrote these wise words as our 
War for Independence was drawing to a 
close (1780). Ten years after it closed 
President Washington and John Jay ward¬ 
ed off another war with England by nego¬ 
tiating the Jay Treaty of 1793-1794 (see 
article), one clause of which contained in 
working form that invention in moral phi¬ 
losophy for which Franklin had hoped. 
Several matters were in dispute,—among 
others, the boundary between Maine and 
the British Possessions. At the treaty of 
peace (1783), the line had been fixed 
rather carelessly, and even the map upon 
which it had been roughly indicated had 
been lost. All geographical terms used in 
the treaty regarding it (belonging as they 
did to an unexplored wilderness), were 
meaningless or ambiguous; and now there 
was an honest difference of opinion about 
the ownership of some eight thousand 
square miles of territory. The fifth sec¬ 
tion of the Jay Treaty provided that this 
boundary should be fixed anew, in accord¬ 
ance with the original intention so far as 
discoverable, by a “mixed commission” of 
experts, who should be sworn to do justice 
after careful examination of evidence,— 
both countries pledging themselves to ac¬ 
cept the award as final. 

This same provision called forth violent 
outcry. In England the ministry were ve¬ 
hemently assailed for so shamefully “com¬ 
promising British honor.” In America 
there went up a like howl from the offend¬ 
ed jingoes. Those were the days when 
mobs, ten-thousand strong, gathered day 
after day in the streets of Philadelphia, 
as John Adams assures us, threatening to 


drag George Washington from his house. 
“What!” shrieked the frenzied opponents 
of the administration; “arbitrate the own¬ 
ership of our soil! surrender a foot of 
American territory without first fighting to 
the last drop of our blood!” This silly, 
question-begging bombast was fitly an¬ 
swered by Alexander Hamilton in his fa¬ 
mous defense of the Treaty: 

It would be a horrid and destructive prin¬ 
ciple,—that nations could not terminate a dispute 
about a parcel of territory by peaceful arbitra¬ 
tion, but only by violence. 

The Jay Treaty arbitration was distinct¬ 
ly a new thing. At all times, to be sure, 
nations have now and then avoided war 
by inviting the mediation of a powerful 
neighbor or by diplomatic negotiation be¬ 
tween themselves. And either of these 
things is usually better than war, but 
neither of them is arbitration. Arbitration 
means neither diplomacy,—a war of wits, 
—nor mediation,—the decision of an arbi¬ 
trary umpire, based partly on guesswork, 
partly on expediency, and partly on com¬ 
promise; arbitration means not these, but 
painstaking adjudication by a sort of in¬ 
ternational court, composed as impartially 
as possible, with definite forms of proced¬ 
ure approximating to those of a law-court, 
hearing evidence and argument in public, 
and basing the decision solely on the mer¬ 
its of the case. 

The nearest approach to this in earlier 
history (except perhaps for some sporadic 
experiments among Greek cities), was the 
occasional mediation of the great Catho¬ 
lic church in the Middle Ages. But as 
that period of history drew to a close the 
pope fell under the political control of the 
rising despotisms of France (see article on 
Avignon) and Spain. Then the Reforma¬ 
tion split Christendom into opposing 
camps, so that the beneficent mediative 
power of the popes practically disap¬ 
peared. Here and there an isolated phi¬ 
losopher urged the creation of an interna¬ 
tional tribunal for peaceful settlement of 
disputes, but such suggestions never ar¬ 
rested the attention of any practical states¬ 
men. The sixteenth, seventeenth, and 
eighteenth centuries, with their incessant 
and almost universal warfare, knew no 


ARBITRATION 


such recourse; and, for the modern world, 
international arbitration reappeared, in a 
far higher form than ever before, with 
the Northeast Boundary Commission of 
1796 established by the Jay Treaty. 

The year after that treaty, the Pinckney 
Treaty with Spain arranged another minor 
arbitration; but, on the whole, the two 
English-speaking peoples who first used 
the device in this modern form continued 
to be its chief users for nearly a century. 
Speaking in the rough, the hundred years 
between the Jay Treaty and the Hague 
Tribunal saw one hundred and fifty cases 
of true arbitration. Of these, England, 
with her complex foreign relations, was 
a party to seventy; the United States, even 
with her policy of keeping free from all 
foreign entanglements in that period, to 
sixty; France to twenty; no other country 
to more than ten. Forty of our cases were 
with England. That is England had 
thirty cases, and we twenty, with other 
countries. England and America, sever¬ 
ally or together, were parties to ninety 
cases, leaving only sixty for aU other coun¬ 
tries in matters to which one of these 
two was not a party; and these sixty came 
in the main, in the latter part of the cen¬ 
tury, when this Anglo-Saxon device had 
begun to spread rapidly to other lands,— 
as jury trial and representative government 
had done a hundred years before. 

The one hundred and fifty cases dealt 
with all sorts of questions. Nine-tenths 
of them, perhaps, concerned little questions 
which would never have led to war any¬ 
way,—though in the absence of arbitration, 
even these would have led to grave in¬ 
justice and would have intensified inter¬ 
national hatreds. The remaining fifteen 
or twenty cases dealt with big questions 
which might easily have led to war. Thus 
our forty cases with England included 
such tremendous matters as the Bering 
Sea Fisheries, the Alabama Claims, the 
Venezuela Question, the Alaska Boundary, 
and several less important, but still highly 
significant, territorial disputes regarding 
our northern frontier. 

This record of nineteenth century arbi¬ 
tration is a glorious history; but the clos¬ 
ing months of that century and the opening 


years of the twentieth have seen something 
better. These nineteenth century arbitra¬ 
tions were all arranged by individual 
treaties, after the disputes arose. Now 
comes the day of permanent tribunals and 
general treaties. It is one thing for two 
nations on the brink of war, passions in¬ 
flamed and enmities augmented, sometimes 
to save themselves by agreeing at the last 
moment upon a mode of arbitration. It 
is a nobler as well as a safer thing to agree 
in advance, by a general arbitration treaty, 
upon the composition of a standing inter¬ 
national court, to which disputes are re¬ 
ferred as they arise, without causing even 
talk of war. To this stage nearly all civ¬ 
ilized states came in the organization of 
the Hague Tribunal (2. v.) in 1899. 
Willis Mason West. 

Recent Progress 

No cases were referred to the Hague 
Tribunal until 1902 when the United 
States and Mexico submitted for adjudi¬ 
cation the long-standing dispute over the 
Pius fund in the Californias. Other cases 
followed and, previous to the outbreak of 
the World War, cases in which the lead¬ 
ing nations of Europe, the United States 
and Japan had their respective interests 
were submitted to the tribunal. A large 
number of cases w T ere in preparation in 
1914 when the outbreak of war caused all 
peace-movements to be set aside tempo¬ 
rarily. The United States and Great 
Britain have resorted to arbitration more 
frequently than any other nations and 
always with favorable results. The case 
receiving the widest publicity was that of 
the Alabama claims, (See Alabama, The) 
because of its international importance. 
More recent cases of wide interest include 
the Bering Sea seal fisheries (1892), the 
Alaska boundary (1897 and 1903), and 
the deep sea fisheries dispute with Canada 
(1910). During the period 1900-1914 the 
leading nations had apparently chosen 
arbitration as the most desirable method 
of settling disputes. In addition to the 
various tribunals established special treaties 
for settling disputes were negotiated. 
During 1912 and 1913 the United States 
negotiated a number of such treaties. 

While the World War set all peace 


ARBITRATION 


plans aside during its existence it did not 
destroy the principle of arbitration. In 
the creation of the League of Nations, the 
Peace Conference provided a peace tribunal 
whose scope is world wide (See League 
of Nations). Notwithstanding the tur¬ 
bulent state of c Europe following the war, 
there seems good reason for believing that 
in the not distant future military strife 
will be superseded by arbitration among 
all nations. 

Industrial Arbitration and Con¬ 
ciliation. Controversies arising between 
employes and employers are frequently re¬ 
ferred to one or more arbitrators for set¬ 
tlement. In cases of this sort involving 
the operation of public utilities, citizens, 
either individually or as representatives of 
civic or other organized bodies, arrange 
for a conference in hope of bringing about 
a speedy settlement of the controversy. 
Many countries have laws creating perma¬ 
nent boards or officials to which, either by 
mutual consent of both parties, or at the 
request of one party, these controversies 
may be referred for settlement. Several 
countries and some states of the United 
States require all such controversies af¬ 
fecting the operation of public utilities to 
be referred to the proper authorities whose 
award must be rendered before a strike can 
be called. 

It is usually customary for the parties 
who have voluntarily resorted to arbitra¬ 
tion to agree to abide by the aw r ard, but 
the award is not legally binding except in 
countries where arbitration is compulsory. 

France was the first nation to resort to 
courts of arbitration for the purpose of 
settling labor controversies. These courts 
were established as early as 1806. Ger¬ 
many soon established similar courts. But 
only in recent years was provision made in 
either country for adjudicating collective 
disputes by these courts. In Great Britain 
voluntary arbitration through private 
boards has been encouraged by legislation 
for more than a century, and in 1896 pro¬ 
vision was made for the registration of 
those boards with the Board of Trade. 
Previous to the outbreak of the World 
War conciliation and arbitration as a 
method for settling labor controversies had 


obtained a strong hold upon employers and 
employes throughout both Europe and 
America. 

United States. The first boards of 
arbitration in the United States were es¬ 
tablished in Massachusetts and New York 
in 1886. In 1923 over one-half the states 
had similar boards. Federal boards were 
created in 1888 and 1895. The purpose 
of these boards or commissions was to set¬ 
tle controversies between the employers and 
employes of common carriers. These acts 
have been superseded by three others—the 
Newlands Act of 1913, the act creating 
the Department of Labor and the Trans¬ 
portation Act of 1920. The Newlands 
Act provided for a national board for vol¬ 
untary mediation and conciliation to con¬ 
sist of a commissioner and two other gov¬ 
ernment officials to be appointed by the 
President with the advice and consent of 
the Senate. In four years this board heard 
71 cases, 14 of which were settled wholly 
or in part by arbitration and 52 by medi¬ 
ation. The failure of the board, however, 
to meet the railway crisis in 1916 led to 
the passage of the Adamson Law which 
provided for a standard 8-hour day for 
trainmen. (See Adamson Law). 

In 1917 the President appointed a 
mediation committee from the National 
Council of Defense. During the operation 
of the railroads by the government three 
adjustment boards were created to equalize 
labor conditions under government man¬ 
agement. The Transportation Act of 
1920, among other measures, created the 
Railway Labor Board with power to 
change wages. The exercise of this power 
in 1922 brought on the railway shopmen’s 
strike with which the Board was unable 
to cope. This states that both the rail¬ 
ways and their employes shall “exert every 
reasonable effort and adopt every available 
means to avoid any interruption to the 
operation of any carrier” arising from any 
dispute over wages, rules of working con¬ 
ditions, and the Railroad Labor Board was 
set up as the final tribunal for the settle¬ 
ment of railway labor disputes. 

The Secretary of Labor has power to act 
as mediator and to appoint commissioners 
of conciliation in labor disputes whenever 


ARBITRATION 


in his judgment the interests of industrial 
peace will be served by so doing. Since 
its creation the Department of Labor has 
settled a large number of labor contro¬ 
versies. During 1919 there were 1,780 
assignments to commissioners of concili¬ 
ation. Of these cases 1,223 were adjusted. 
Numerous temporary measures and special 
commissions were necessary to adjust new 
conditions constantly arising during the 
war. 

Canada. In 1907 the Dominion Par¬ 
liament passed the Industrial Disputes In¬ 
vestigation Act. This act applies to all 
disputes involving ten or more persons 
who are engaged in mining or in the oper¬ 
ation of public utilities including railway 
and steamship lines, telegraph and tele¬ 
phone communication and water power, 
gas and electric light service. This act 
requires employers and employes to give 
at least thirty days’ notice of intended 
changes affecting wages and hours of em¬ 
ployment. The act provides for cessation 
of hostilities prior to or during the refer¬ 
ence of such dispute to a board of con¬ 
ciliation and investigation. Both parties 
to the controversies are forbidden to en¬ 
gage in strikes or lockouts or to do any¬ 
thing that will affect existing conditions 
of wages or hours of work prior to the 
announcement of the board’s decision. 
The investigating boards appointed under 
this act do not have power to enforce their 
decisions. But the publication of the ac¬ 
tual facts in the case usually leads to a 
settlement because the weight of public 
opinion in most cases makes it advisable 
to accept the award. The continuation of 
the act without modification is proof of its 
success. 

Great Britain. Previous to the out¬ 
break of the World War disputes between 
employers and employes were usually set¬ 
tled by discussion between the interested 
parties. Voluntary conciliation boards 
were established in all important indus¬ 
tries and these boards settled many dis¬ 
putes. The Conciliation Act of 1896 con¬ 
ferred upon the Government power to act 
in labor disputes. However the law was 
seldom applied until the general labor un¬ 
rest for three years preceding the outbreak 


of the War compelled Government atten¬ 
tion. 

The War created such a demand for 
supplies that the Government took meas¬ 
ures to prevent stoppage of work. 

In 1915 the committee on production 
was established to report on the best means 
to insure the greatest productive power of 
employes in engineering, and shipbuilding 
establishments working for the Govern¬ 
ment. Later this committee was absorbed 
by the Ministry of Munitions. The Muni¬ 
tions Acts followed in 1915, 1916, and 
1917, the chief purpose of these acts was 
to compel agreement between employers 
and employes and to prevent curtailing 
productions in all commodities needed in 
the army. 

Immediately after the close of the War 
the Wages Legislation Act was passed as 
a temporary measure, and the Government 
signified its intention to withdraw from 
labor disputes, leaving them to be settled 
by the parties to the controversy. 

The collapse of industry in the years 
immediately following the War caused 
such an outburst of unrest that the Gov¬ 
ernment found it necessary to take further 
action. Various committees were ap¬ 
pointed and temporary relief measures 
were established. The most important 
committee was the Whitley Committee ap¬ 
pointed in October, 1916, to make sugges¬ 
tions for securing permanent improvement 
of the relations between employers and 
employes. This committee formed the 
basis of the Government’s later policy re¬ 
garding strikes and lockouts. The com¬ 
mittee recommended establishing joint in¬ 
dustrial councils of employers and work¬ 
ing people in every organized industry, 
the extension of trade boards for poorly 
organized trades, and the temporary estab¬ 
lishment of other bodies for intermediate 
trades. These councils are to give regular 
consideration to all matters pertaining to 
the welfare of the industry in which they 
are engaged. National councils are to be 
supplemented by district councils and work 
committees to deal with district and local 
conditions. The Government approved 
the suggestions of the committee and in 
1920 the organization of councils began. 


ARBOR DAY 


The movement does not contemplate 
compulsory arbitration. 

Other Countries. In Norway com¬ 
pulsory investigation and delay are re¬ 
quired before stoppage of work can take 
place. In Sweden three new measures 
were adopted in 1920. The first amended 
and extended the law relating to the ap¬ 
pointment of local conciliators; the sec¬ 
ond establishes a permanent court of arbi¬ 
tration and the third relates to the appoint¬ 
ment, on request, of arbitrators of indus¬ 
trial disputes arising out of collective 
agreements. Rumania prohibits strikes 
and lockouts without attempt at concili¬ 
ation. The law in Switzerland provides 
for the appointment of permanent can¬ 
tonal committees which may intervene on 
their own initiative or on request of one 
of the interested parties. In 1920 Ger¬ 
many enacted legislation requiring the es¬ 
tablishment of works councils which are 
required to appeal to a committee or an 
arbitration board, to be agreed upon in 
case of failure of the parties to the dis¬ 
pute to reach a settlement. Strikes and 
lockouts affecting the supply of gas, water 
and electricity are permissible only after 
three days following the publication of the 
award by a competent committee of con¬ 
ciliation. 

Arbitration, Commercial. Courts of 
commercial arbitration or trade courts 
have been in existence in England for a 
term of years. The first trade court in the 
United States w r as established by the Chi¬ 
cago Association of Commerce and opened 
in that city May 4, 1921. Provision for 
the court was made in the Illinois Arbitra¬ 
tion and Award Act passed in 1917 and 
amended in 1919. In accordance with the 
terms of this act, all persons having requi¬ 
site legal capacity, may by signing an in¬ 
strument in writing submit to one or more 
arbitrators to be named in such manner 
as indicated in the wTiting any controversy 
existing between them. The number of 
arbitrators may be one or more as agreed 
upon by the parties. A submission to arbi¬ 
tration shall, unless contrary intention is 
expressed therein, be irrevocable. 

Each arbitrator before he enters upon 
his duties is sworn faithfully to examine 


and determine fairly to the best of his 
ability the matter in dispute. Questions 
of law may, upon the request of either 
party or on the judgment of the arbi¬ 
trators, be submitted to a court for an 
opinion and the opinion shall bind the 
arbitrators in making the award. The 
arbitrators have the same authority as the 
court in subpoenaing witnesses and taking 
testimony. 

Jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of the 
trade court is limited to cases involving 
business disputes. It has no jurisdiction 
over semi-criminal cases, divorce cases or 
labor disputes. 

Advantages. The following advantages 
are claimed by the trade court: (1) It 
saves time. Cases do not have to wait 
their turn on a crow r ded court calendar. 
(2) It saves expense, since the method of 
procedure is direct and simple. (3) It 
provides arbitrators, who by long experi¬ 
ence in business, are experts in deciding 
the matter at issue. (4) It avoids pub¬ 
licity which is a necessary attendant to a 
court procedure. 

Conclusions of fact are final but ques¬ 
tions of law may be reviewed by the court 
selected by the parties. An appeal may 
be made to the Appellate or Supreme 
courts to review the conclusions of the 
arbitrators and to the lower court on the 
questions of law the same as in other cases. 

Arbor Day, a day set apart for planting 
trees. The first designation of a public 
day for tree planting was brought about 
in Nebraska in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton, 
afterwards United States commissioner of 
agriculture. In 1885 the legislature of 
that state designated April 22, Mr. Mor' 
ton’s birthday, as a legal holiday, to be 
observed, especially by school children, as 
an arbor day for the planting of trees. 
Other states have followed this excellent 
example, until only one or tw r o states have 
failed to set apart an arbor day. The date 
depends of course on the climate. In 
some states the exact date is left to be 
fixed from year to year by proclama¬ 
tion of the governor. Texas and Ala¬ 
bama, having an early spring, have des¬ 
ignated February 22, or Washington’s 
birthday, for tree planting. Georgia takes 


ARBOR VITAE 


a day in December, and Florida in Feb¬ 
ruary. West Virginia sets aside a day in 
the autumn and another in the spring. The 
more northerly states have adopted a date 
in May. The following is a full list of 
arbor days. It affords an interesting study 
in climate: 

Alabama—February 22. 

Arizona—Friday following first day of 
April, also Friday following first day of 
February. 

Arkansas—First Saturday in March. 

California—Observed by separate coun¬ 
ties, but not generally. 

Colorado—Third Friday in April. 

Connecticut—Date fixed by governor, 
last Friday in April or first in May. 

Delaware—Date fixed by governor, usu¬ 
ally in April. 

District of Columbia—Not observed. 

Florida—First Friday in February. 

Georgia—First Friday in December. 

Idaho—Last Monday in April. 

Illinois—Date fixed by governor and su¬ 
perintendent of public instruction. 

Indiana—Last Friday in October. 

Iowa—Date fixed by governor. 

Kansas—Date fixed by governor. 

Kentucky—Not regularly observed. 

Maine—Date fixed by governor, usually 
early in May. 

Maryland—In April; date fixed by gov¬ 
ernor. 

Massachusetts—Last Saturday in April. 

Michigan—Last Friday in April. 

Minnesota—Date fixed by governor; 
usually last of April or first of May. 

Mississippi—December 10. 

Missouri—Friday after first Tuesday in 
April. 

Montana—Second Tuesday in May. 

Nebraska—April 22. 

Nevada—Date fixed by governor, usu¬ 
ally in April. 

New Hampshire—No date fixed, usu¬ 
ally in May. 

New Jersey—Date fixed by governor, 
usually third Friday in April. 

New Mexico—Second Friday in March. 

New York—Friday after first of May. 

North Carolina—October 12 usually ob¬ 
served. 

North Dakota—First Friday in May. 


Ohio—Second or third Friday in April. 

Oklahoma—Second Friday in April. 

Oregon—Second Friday in April. 

Pennsylvania—In October; date fixed 
by superintendent of instruction. 

Rhode Island—Second Friday in May. 

South Carolina—Third Friday in No¬ 
vember. 

South Dakota—Date fixed by governor. 

Tennessee—Date fixed annually in No¬ 
vember. 

Texas—February 22. 

Utah—April 15. 

Vermont—Date fixed by governor, lat¬ 
ter part of April or first of May. 

Virginia—Not regularly observed. 

Washington—Irregularly observed; date 
set by governor; different dates east and 
west of the Cascades. 

West Virginia—Third Friday in April 
and third Friday in November. 

Wisconsin—Date fixed by governor. 

Wyoming—Date fixed by governor. 

Arbor Vitae (tree of life), a small ev¬ 
ergreen, coniferous tree, from ten to fifty 
feet high. Arbor vitae is related closely to 
cedar and, in fact, is sometimes, though 
incorrectly, called white cedar. The spray 
of the arbor, vitae is very flat and two- 
ranked. This evergreen is a favorite in 
dooryards. The native home of the com¬ 
mon species is in swamps and on cool rocky 
shores from New Brunswick to Pennsyl¬ 
vania, along the mountains to North Caro¬ 
lina, and westward to northeastern Min¬ 
nesota. To succeed in dooryards, arbor vitae 
must be mulched heavily with chips, and 
even then it is apt to winter-kill. Five 
species occur in North America and Asia 
out of which gardeners have succeeded, so 
they say, in developing fifty varieties. An 
oil is obtained from the twigs by distilla¬ 
tion. The wood of the stem is soft and 
light, but tough and durable, and bears 
exposure to the weather very well. In 
Great Britain it is planted as an ornamen- 
tal tree, but it does not grow so well as in 
America. An arbor vitae, a native of 
China and Japan, is also used for orna¬ 
mental purposes in Europe, but is more 
sensitive to cold than is the American spe¬ 
cies. Hedges of arbor vitae are unsur 
passed for beauty. See Conifers. 


ARBUTUS—ARCH 


Arbutus, ar'bu-tus, Trailing, a fra¬ 
grant ground plant of the heath family. 
The trailing arbutus is to be sought in early 
spring in sandy or rocky woods under the 
evergreens. The runners are slightly 
woody. The whole plant is hairy. The 
corolla is salver-shaped with a five-parted 
spreading border. The flowers are apt to 
be hid in old leaves but their fragrance 
cannot be overlooked. This hardy little 
plant is found in favoring localities east 
of a line drawn from Florida by way of 
Kentucky, Michigan, and northeastern 
Minnesota to northwestern Canada. One 
authority credits Texas with being the 
home of the plant. A near relative is to 
be found in Japan. The botanical name, 
Epigaea, means “on the earth” and is quite 
appropriate. 

I wandered lonely where the pine trees made 
Against the bitter East their barricade, 

And, guided by the sweet 
Perfume, I found, within a narrow dell, 

The trailing spring flower tinted like a shell 
Amid dry leaves and mosses at my feet. 

—Whittier, The Trailing Arbutus . 

Arcadia, ar-ka'di-a, a district of ancient 
Greece. It was situated in the heart of the 
Peloponnesus, and entirely surrounded by 
mountains. Arcadia was proverbial for 
the contentment and simple happiness of 
its people. The name, Arcadia, has come 
to be used figuratively for any scene of 
rural simplicity and peace. Arcadia in 
modern geography is a nomarchy, or coun¬ 
ty, of Greece. Arcady is an obsolete form 
of Arcadia, often used in poetry. 

The later Roman poets were wont to speak 
of Arcadia as a smiling land, where grassy 
vales, watered by gentle and pellucid streams, 
were inhabited by a race of primitive and pic¬ 
turesque shepherds and shepherdesses, who di¬ 
vided their time between tending their flocks 
and making love to one another in the most 
tender and romantic fashion. This idyllic con¬ 
ception of the country and the people is not 
to be traced in the old Hellenic poets, who were 
better acquainted with the actual facts of the 
case. The Arcadians were sufficiently primitive, 
but there was very little that was graceful or 
picturesque about their land or their lives.— 
C. H. Hanson, The Land of Greece. 

The history of the rise in modern literature 
of an ideal Arcadia—the home of piping shep¬ 
herds and coy shepherdesses, where rustic sim¬ 
plicity and plenty satisfied the ambition of un¬ 
tutored hearts, and where ambition and its crimes 
were unknown—is a very curious one.—Mahaffy. 


Arcadia, a pastoral romance in prose 
and verse by Sir Philip Sidney. Tragic 
images, shipwrecks, attacks by pirates, 
fights, and abductions, are interwoven with 
scenes of piping shepherds, gaily dressed 
ladies in daisy-studded fields, masquerad¬ 
ing princes, and songs and dances innu¬ 
merable. Sidney himself said of it, “It is 
a trifle, my young head must be delivered.” 
See Sidney, Sir Philip. 

Live ever, sweete booke; the simple image of 
his gentle witt, and the golden pillar of his noble 
courage; and ever notify unto the world that 
thy writer was the secretary of eloquence, the 
breath of the muses, the honeybee of the daintyest 
flowers of witt and arte, the pith of morall and 
intellectual virtues, the arme of Belonna in the 
field, the tongue of Suada in the chamber, the 
sprite of Practise in esse, and the paragon of 
excellency in print.—Harvey’s Pierce’s Superero¬ 
gation. 

Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, the immortality 
of which was so fondly predicted by his ad¬ 
mirers, and which, in truth, is full of noble 
thoughts, delicate images, and graceful turns of 
language, is now scarcely ever mentioned.—Ir¬ 
ving, The Sketch Book. 

FROM THE ARCADIA. 

They are termed shepherds,—a happy people 
wanting little because they desire not much. 

Provision is the foundation of hospitality, and 
thrift the jewell of magnificence. 

His word was ever led by his thought and 
followed by his deed. 

Who only sees the ill is worse than blind. 

Arch, in the art of building, a series of 
stones or bricks arranged side by side in a 
curve in such a way that, if the two ends 
of the arc or bow be kept in place, the 
portions of the entire arch support each 
other. At first thought it would seem 
impossible to bridge a river with short 
stones or bricks, but if a framework of 
timbers be constructed with a curved sur¬ 
face on which the mason may build, the 
staging may be removed and the arch will 
not only stand, but will support any weight 
not great enough to crush the material of 
which it is built. The curvature of the 
arch causes a weight to act in a sidewise 
direction as a crushing, not a breaking 
force. 

Curved arches above windows and door¬ 
ways were known certainly to the Egyp¬ 
tians and the Assyrians at least two 
centuries B. C. The Etrurians left cut 


ARCHAEOLOGY 


stone arches. Where the Romans got the 
idea, nobody knows, but they were the first 
builders to bring the arch into general 
use. The Greeks were able to bridge a 
space no wider than the length of a sin¬ 
gle slab of stone; the Romans not only 
bridged windows and doorways, but wide 
halls. By the aid of the arch they built 
lofty domes and wide gateways. They car¬ 
ried their famous aqueducts across valleys 
over long series of stone arches. Their 
streets and public places were adorned 
with triumphal arches erected in memory 
of Titus, Severus, Constantine, and other 
distinguished conquerors. This custom 
has been followed in Paris and other Eu¬ 
ropean cities. The Dewey arch in New 
York City is perhaps the most prominent 
American example of this sort of thing. 

The round arch of the Romans was 
succeeded by ,the pointed arch of Gothic 
architecture, used in the beautiful cathe¬ 
drals of western Europe, and by the Moor¬ 
ish arch employed in the Alhambra and 
other creations of Arabic genius. Modern 
arches have been constructed of concrete. 
The term is applied also to bow-like spans 
of iron work used in bridge construction. 
Arches of masonry carrying roadways are 
seen everywhere. One of the longest, but 
not the longest, span in the world, is that 
of the Cabin John bridge near Washington, 
D. C., 220 feet in length. A span at 
Plauen, Germany, is 295 feet long. The 
Eskimo employs the principle of the arch 
in building his snow huts. 

See Architecture; Bridge. 

Archaeology, the science of antiquities. 
The subject as defined by the Century 
Dictionary is “that branch of knowledge 
which takes cognizance of past civiliza¬ 
tions, and investigates their history in all 
fields, by means of the remains of art, 
architecture, monuments, inscriptions, lit¬ 
erature, language, implements, customs, 
and all other examples which have sur¬ 
vived.” 

Most archaeologists exclude the study 
of written records. In the first place, they 
are interested in the rude beginnings of 
mankind; and in the second place, they 
take the ground that this kind of investi¬ 
gation belongs rather to the historian. Ar¬ 


chaeology, however, is an aid to history. 
It supplies the means of confirming or re¬ 
jecting written testimony, and, in the ab¬ 
sence of writings, the historian may draw 
shrewd inferences from antiquities. Chron¬ 
icles may err, but seeing is believing. When 
the archaeologist finds a dated coin be¬ 
neath the ashes of a lake dwelling, he is 
in position very possibly to aid the his¬ 
torian in fixing, more or less definitely, 
some date required in connection with lo¬ 
cal history of the region. But coopera¬ 
tion with the historian is only one kind 
of service. The archaeologist is engaged 
independently, as well, in discovering and 
inferring and reconstructing the long path¬ 
way trod by mankind before the dawn of 
history. 

One great obstacle to the use of an¬ 
tiquities as historical material lies in the 
uncertainty of date. Major Powell states 
that many collectors have paid high prices 
for relics of the mound builders, when, as 
a matter of fact, the “antiquities” in ques¬ 
tion are articles made by whites in recent 
times, bartered, little doubt, for furs or 
other Indian possessions. The first deci¬ 
sive achievement, and, in fact, the great 
achievement, of archaeology, is the dis¬ 
covery and mapping of the route by which 
savages passed on their way to civilization. 
The modern archaeologist holds that while 
some peoples have journeyed faster than 
others, all have trod the same pathway. 
According to this theory, even the most 
enlightened nations have come up, step 
by step, from savagery. It is possible 
to point out five distinct stages of advance¬ 
ment. 

1. The Eolithic Age. The dawn of 
stone implements. This age is marked by 
the use of horns, claws, beaks, bones, 
shells, and other bestial organs for awls, 
arrows, harpoons, and spears. Such tools 
served for piercing and tearing, but hard¬ 
ly for cutting. Tools of vegetable origin 
were, no doubt, in use, but they have de¬ 
cayed, leaving no clue. 

2. The Paleolithic Age. The old 
stone age. Stone hammers, stone mortars, 
flint knives, mark this period. 

3. The Neolithic Age. The late 
stone age. The materials used are the 


ARCHAEOPTERYX 


same, but the tools are made with more 
skill and show better finish. Wooden 
houses, wooden ships, wooden yokes, wood¬ 
en plows, were fashioned without metal 
and without the aid of metal tools. The 
American Indians were found in this stage. 

4. The Bronze Age. This was an 
age of rapid advance. Bronze axes, bronze 
chisels, bronze knives, bronze swords, 
bronze kettles, bronze pins, and bronze ar¬ 
ticles innumerable enabled the hunter, the 
farmer, the builder, and the trader to get 
on. The very idea of a bronze foundry, 
however . crude, distinguishes a people or 
a tribe from those who have no implement 
or weapon save such as may be picked up 
on a shore or torn from a dead animal. 

5. The Iron Age. This is the age in 
which we live, though many writers are 
inclined to claim that we have advanced 
into the Steel Age. 

The second broad principle advanced 
by the archaeologist is that a people left 
to nature passes through the stages in the 
order named. The first step is the use 
of tools provided by nature; the second, 
the making of tools from stone; third, the 
improvement of stone tools and the fash¬ 
ioning of useful articles without the aid 
of metals; fourth, the employment of met¬ 
als easily worked, as copper and bronze; 
and, lastly, the use of iron. Tribes in 
their infancy learn to walk before they run. 

A third archaeological principle runs to 
the effect that no length of time may be 
set during which a people may be expected 
to complete an apprenticeship in the tools 
of a particular age. A recent writer in¬ 
sists that in localities, the old stone age, 
the age of flint, lasted 100,000 years. 
About the only point agreed upon in this 
connection is that the age of flint is long¬ 
er than all the rest put together. 

Still a fourth principle of importance 
should be understood. The beginning and 
end of an archaeological age is not uni¬ 
form for all parts of the world. The 
Egyptians were 2,000 years later in reach¬ 
ing bronze implements than were the As¬ 
syrians. Tribes may yet be found that are 
unacquainted with the use of metals and 
whose stone implements are rude. They 
are still in the paleolithic age. 


Students of archaeology are assisted by 
the material now to be found in museums. 
The National Museum at Washington, the 
Peabody Museum of Harvard, the Ameri¬ 
can Museum at New York, the Field-Co- 
lumbian Museum at Chicago, and many 
others, contain priceless collections of In¬ 
dian implements and articles of Indian 
manufacture. 

The large university museums and the 
royal, that is to say, the public, museums 
in the various capitals of Europe, shelter 
enormous, and, in many cases, rapidly in¬ 
creasing collections. 

Archaeopteryx, ar-ka-op'te-riks, a ge¬ 
nus of fossil birds. In 1861 Andreas 
Wagner, observing a sheet of slate in the 
lithographic quarries of Solenhofen, Ba¬ 
varia, noted a peculiar fossil impression, 
the imprint of a feather. Two other similar 
fossils, but in this case skeletons, were found 
in the same locality. They enabled scien¬ 
tists to make out a flying creature to which 
they have given the name archaeopteryx, 
meaning ancient wing or bird. This 
strange combination had the body and 
short wings of a heavy bird, but it had 
the head, teeth, long neck, and long tail 
of a lizard. These fossils occur in rocks 
older than the rocks in which bird fossils 
are found. Students have long been of the 
opinion that birds are a higher develop¬ 
ment of reptiles. In these nondescript ani¬ 
mals of the air, we have reptiles half way 
developed into birds—a striking confirma¬ 
tion of the reptilian theory of bird origin. 
One of the skeleton fossils has been se¬ 
cured for the British Museum; the other 
is in the Museum at Berlin. The impres¬ 
sions in the fine grained lithographic stone 
are clear. 

Archangel, an ancient seaport on 
the Arctic coast of Russia. Latitude 64° 
32' N., longitude 40° 33' E. Archangel 
is situated on the east bank of the Dwina, 
twenty miles from the White Sea. It is 
connected with Moscow by railway, and is 
noted, not only as the most northerly rail¬ 
road terminus in Russia, but as the most 
ancient, and for several centuries the only, 
seaport of that country. From western 
Europe it is approached only by a long 
voyage around the north of Norway 


ARCHBISHOP—ARCHIMEDES 


Archangel is the leading commercial 
city of Northern Russia, and its harbor, 
deepened to 22 feet, though ice-bound 
from October to May, is visited each year 
by about 800 vessels. It is connected by 
the Dwina River with a fine system of 
inland waterways which connect it with 
the inland cities of Russia. The chief ex¬ 
ports are timber, fish, furs, cereals, wax 
and caviare. The imports are chiefly coal, 
salt, machinery and fruit. Large saw mills 
have sprung up in the vicinity. Archangel 
has a beautiful cathedral, a museum, a 
town hall, and a marine hospital. During 
the World War it was one of the chief 
ports of communication between Russia 
and the Allies. Population, about 43,600. 

Archbishop, a bishop of the highest 
rank. In the early days of Christianity, 
the pastors of the various churches were 
called bishops. After a time the bishops 
of the large cities, surrounded as they were 
by many smaller churches, were called 
archbishops by way of distinction. The 
bishop of Alexandria was one of the first, 
if not the first, to claim the title. The Ro¬ 
man Catholic church is the only one that 
has archbishops in this country. 

Archery, the use of the bow and arrow. 
Archery appears to have been little prac¬ 
ticed by the Greeks and Romans; but 
auxiliary troops, employed by both of 
these nations were armed with the bow 
and arrow. The Scythians were skilled in 
the use of the bow. The enormous armies 
of Xerxes and Darius were composed in 
part of archers drawn from the oriental 
nations. The Egyptians were noted for 
the use of the bow and arrow. In the Mid¬ 
dle Ages the men of Burgundy were fa¬ 
mous archers. William the Conqueror 
owed his victory at Hastings quite as much 
to the superiority of his bowmen as to 
the weight of the Norman battle-ax. Ar¬ 
rows fell as thick as hail. The English 
bowmen gave a good account of them¬ 
selves at the battles of Crecy, Poitiers, and 
Agincourt. The English bow was as long 
as a man; the arrow half as long as the 
bow. In their contests with the Scots, the 
superiority of the English bowmen was a 
great advantage. It was the favorite boast 
of the English archer that, in his two 


dozen arrows, he carried the lives of four 
and twenty Scots at his belt. The bow 
and arrow of the American Indian was by 
no means a weapon to be despised. The 
Chippewas and Sioux depended on their 
bows and arrows to take wild fowl and 
buffalo. The Comanches and the Apaches 
were formidable bowmen. In shooting at 
wild fowl as they rose, the Indian not in¬ 
frequently lay on his back, threw up his 
legs, and bent his bow by holding the 
string in his hands and pushing the wood 
away with his toes. 

The earliest arrow heads appear to have 
been made of flint or chert, chipped to 
the desired sharpness of edge. Heads of 
this description are found all over Europe 
and Asia, and in North America. Many 
savage tribes still depend upon stone for 
their arrow points. The shaft, whether a 
reed or a wooden rod, was usually split 
to receive the neck of the arrow, to which 
it was bound by a thong or a piece of 
sinew. Many of these flint arrow heads 
are exceedingly symmetrical. The next 
step appears to have been the use of bronze. 
The famous archers of the Egyptian army 
used bronze arrow heads fitted to reed 
shafts somewhat less than three feet in 
length. These tips were cast. Specimens 
are still found in burial places. Iron and 
steel points shaped on an anvil are a later 
invention. 

For fishing, hunting, and wars they use their 
bows and arrows. They bring their bows to 
the form of ours by scraping with a shell. Their 
arrows are made, some of straight young sprigs, 
which they head with bone two or three inches 
long. These they use to shoot at squirrels on 
trees. Another sort of arrow is made of reeds. 
These are headed with splinters of crystal or 
some other sharp stone, the spurs of a turkey, 
or the bill of some bird. For a knife they use 
the splinter of a reed. To make the notch of 
their arrows they have the tooth of a boar 
set in a stick. With the sinews of deer and the 
tops of deers’ horns boiled to a jelly they make 
a glue that will not dissolve in cold water, and 
with this they glue the head to the end of their 
arrows.—John Smith, The Virginia Indians. 

Archimedes, ar'ki-me'des (287-212 
B. C.), a philosopher of Syracuse. He is 
supposed to have studied at the peculiar 
university connected with the Alexandrian 
library. While in Egypt, so it is said, he 
invented what is known as Archimedes’ 


ARCHITECTURE 


screw. It consists of a hollow tube, wound 
in a spiral fashion around a central cyl¬ 
inder. If the cylinder be placed in a 
slanting position, with the lower end of 
the tube under water, and the cylinder 
turned with a crank, water may be ele¬ 
vated through the spiral. This device was 
of use to the Egyptians in draining their 
lower lands after the overflow of the Nile. 
It is still in use in Holland, where water 
screws are turned by windmills to drain 
the lowlands behind the dikes. Archime¬ 
des, speaking of the lever, is said to have 
declared, “Give me a place to stand and 
I will move the world.” 

Archimedes is credited with the discov¬ 
ery of the principle known by his name, 
namely that if a solid be immersed in a 
liquid, the loss of weight by the solid 
is equal to the weight of the amount of 
liquid displaced. A cubic inch of silver 
and a cubic inch of gold immersed in a 
liquid displace a cubic inch each, and suf¬ 
fer an equal loss of weight; but a pound 
of gold occupies less space than a pound 
of silver. It therefore displaces less of the 
liquid and suffers a smaller loss of weight. 
When immersed in water, gold loses a 
little less than one-nineteenth of its weight; 
silver considerably more than one-tenth. 

A story runs to the effect that King 
Hiero trusted an artificer with a quantity 
of gold out of which to make him a crown, 
but that, having occasion to doubt the hon¬ 
esty of the workman, he sent the crown 
to Archimedes for an examination. While 
in a public bath and noticing the height 
to which his own body caused the water 
to rise in the tub, it occurred to the phi¬ 
losopher that if he were to ascertain the 
loss of weight of gold m water, and com¬ 
pare it with the weight of the crown in 
water, he could determine the amount of 
gold that had been stolen and replaced by 
a baser and lighter metal. So overjoyed 
was he, so the story goes, that he sprang 
from the bath and ran home without a 
stitch of clothing, crying, “Eureka, Eure¬ 
ka! I have found it! I have found it!” 

During the siege of his native city 
Archimedes is said to have set fire to a 
Roman ship with a burning glass. He 
perished at the hands of a common Roman 


soldier, who knew no better than to slay 
the greatest scientist of the day. Cicero, 
once appointed governor of Sicily, re¬ 
ported finding the tomb of Archimedes 
overgrown with briars. His monument 
bore an inscription of a cylinder in which 
a sphere was inscribed, a fitting testimonial 
to Archimedes’ discovery of their relative 
magnitude. 

Architecture, ar'ki-tec-tur, the art of 
building. Passing by the tepee, the lodge, 
and the wigwam of the Indian, the tent 
and the snowhouse of the Eskimo, the tree 
dwelling of equatorial Africa, the lake 
dwelling of the Peruvian and ancient 
Swiss, the hut of the Hottentot, the bam¬ 
boo house of the Orient, the cabin of the 
peasant, and the log house of the settler, 
we may say that the study of architecture 
begins with the more permanent and pre¬ 
tentious, the more highly ornamental 
buildings of various countries and peoples. 
We may include buildings made of a wide 
variety of material, as adobe, bricks, stone, 
wood, concrete, stucco, plaster, glass, and 
metal; but the builder or, at least, the 
designer, the architect, must have more 
than the rude skill of the savage. What¬ 
ever the material used, an architectural 
building cannot be put up by mere hand 
and eye. It requires to be planned before¬ 
hand, and to be erected under the Super¬ 
vision of a mind skilled in measurements 
and drafting, and with an artistic sense of 
proportion and fitness. Each portion of 
a building, whether a wall, pillar, door¬ 
way, window, or cornice, must be of the 
right proportions to delight the eye and 
produce a feeling of pleasure. As the 
painter relies on color, the sculptor on 
form, and the musician on harmony, so the 
genuine architect relies on the perfection 
of proportion to please the mind and must 
go about his work in no haphazard way. 

Beginning with the far East, it may be 
said that the prevalence of earthquakes 
and the probability that buildings of size 
and height would be shaken down, have 
prevented the Chinese and Japanese from 
developing the architectural skill that 
might be expected from so ingenious a 
people. The royal palace of Tokio is but 
a one-story wooden building. The great 


ARCHITECTURE 


majority of the buildings of farther Asia 
are made of light bamboo. They are 
erected easily, are burned frequently, and 
are replaced readily. In China, Burma, 
and India, we find the sacred pagoda, a 
pyramidal tower from three to thirteen 
stories high, always an odd number. It 
is connected frequently with a temple, and 
is erected on some spot sacred to Buddha, 
or as an evidence of the builder’s piety. 
Height and stability are secured by the 
pyramidal shape. 

Next to the great pagodas in interest 
are the rock-cut caves of India. Not less 
than a thousand temples and as many mon¬ 
asteries are found in India, cut in natural 
cliffs of rocks. Sometimes the chambers 
within are of vast extent. The roof is 
supported on massive pillars of undis¬ 
turbed stone. Not infrequently a square 
of the roof is removed to admit light and 
air into an interior court. The caves of El- 
lora extend three or four miles into the 
solid rock. The more important portion 
is described as a temple of great extent, 
with halls, aisles, courts, passages, pillars, 
and colonnades, with carvings, figures, and 
friezes complete, not built, but cut out of 
the solid rock. The temple stands in the 
open of a large excavated quadrangle or 
pit, which is surrounded by pillars with 
chambers within, all on a scale of no lit¬ 
tle magnificence. This immense temple 
with all its ornaments and surroundings 
was cut out of the living rock about 1000 
A. D. The entrances to these rock caves 
were ornamented by elaborate pillars and 
porticos cut in the face of the cliff. 

The princes of India built tombs and 
temples of masonry of great magnificence. 
We need only mention the Taj Mahal, the 
celebrated mausoleum built by the emperor 
in a beautiful garden a mile east of Agra. 
It stands on a rectangular platform with 
a minaret 133 feet high at each corner. 
It ' is an octagonal building with sides 
measuring 130 feet each. The walls are 
70 feet high, and are surmounted by 
a dome 120 feet high, rising to a total 
height of 190 feet. The entire building 
is of dazzling white marble with interior 
finish of surpassing beauty in lapis lazuli 
and other stones worked into a mosaic. 


Twenty thousand workmen are said to 
have toiled over twenty years in the erec¬ 
tion of this burial place. It cost from 
ten to fifty million dollars. The artistic 
ability of Indian architects is just becom¬ 
ing known. A work consisting of several 
hundred sheets in portfolios, illustrating 
the lace-like details into which the artisans 
of India fashioned the marble of their 
temples, and the exquisite coloration em¬ 
ployed in interior decoration, has been is¬ 
sued by one of the wealthy native princes. 
It has proved a revelation to the architec¬ 
tural world. 

We are indebted to explorers and ex¬ 
cavators for our knowledge of the build¬ 
ings in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. They 
were constructed not infrequently of adobe 
or sundried brick, with pavements and 
wainscoting of vitrified and beautifully 
colored tiling, or else slabs of carved ala¬ 
baster. For some account of the palaces, 
hanging gardens and walls and temples 
of this region, the reader is referred to the 
articles on Babylon and Nineveh. The 
historians of art claim that Greece learned 
much from the architects of this region. 
Remains of great extent are found in 
Persia, especially at Susa and Persepolis. 
The temples, treasures houses, and palaces 
of these ancient capitals are quite different 
from those of Greece, but appear to have 
been suggested by the same models, possi¬ 
bly those of Babylonia. 

The Jews have made no notable contri¬ 
butions to the art. The temple of Solo¬ 
mon from which Christ drove out the 
money changers, was a rectangular build¬ 
ing 110 feet long by 36 feet wide, and 
55 feet in height. Its walls were of stone. 
It was roofed and floored with cedar, and 
was surrounded on three sides by priests’ 
chambers. Across the front a wide porch 
extended. A vast amount of gold was used 
in gilding doorways, floors, and walls. The 
details of the building are not understood 
thoroughly, but it is conceded that Solo¬ 
mon’s temple is interesting chiefly from the 
side of sacred history. 

The principal buildings of the ancient 
Egyptians were the pyramids, and the 
tombs and temples of upper Egypt. The 
reverence in which the Egyptians held the 


ARCHITECTURE 


bodies of their ancestors led to the use 
of a large part of the national wealth in 
constructing chambers for the storing of 
mummies. The Great Pyramids, one of 
the wonders of antiquity, were constructed 
to serve for both tombs and monuments. 
Many structures on a smaller scale have 
escaped total destruction. Even more in¬ 
teresting are the rock-cut royal tombs of 
this region, some of which extend several 
hundred feet into the solid rock with many 
a chamber and sculptured passage. One 
of the largest at Thebes contains passages, 
in all, a sixth of a mile in length. Rock- 
cut temples are numerous. The doorway 
of one in Nubia, cut in the face of a rock, 
is flanked by two sculptured figures or 
statues sixty-six feet high. Temples cut 
out of the living rock appear to have sug¬ 
gested temples built of masonry,—small 
ones at first, then larger edifices, as the 
mason learned to handle his material. The 
temple at Edfoo on the Nile, above 
Thebes, is named as the most striking ex¬ 
ample of the Egyptian building art. In 
form it is a large parallelogram with a 
doorway 50 feet high, flanked on either 
side by massive towers 110 feet high. The 
entire front is 250 feet wide, adorned with 
colossal figures, some of them 40 feet 
in height. An open court within is sur¬ 
rounded by imposing colonnades, whose 
columns are 32 feet high. Passing toward 
the rear, through successive chambers, mys¬ 
tery and awe deepening at every step, 
the door of the sixth passage,- when in 
a state of preservation, admitted the high 
priest to the sacred inner chamber, the 
holy of holies. The entire temple sug¬ 
gests not only the temple at Jerusalem, 
but is evidently of a type studied by the 
architects that planned the temples of 
Greece. Still larger, but built on the 
same plan, is the temple of Karnak, twice 
as large as St. Peter’s at Rome, and cover¬ 
ing five times as much ground as St. Paul’s 
at London. Connected with these temples 
are long avenues guarded by rows of 
sphinxes and gigantic sitting statues. One 
of Memnon is 53 feet high with a face 
alone 7 feet long. Square obelisks cut 
from a single stone stood in pairs at 
<he entrances. Cleopatra’s Needle in Cen¬ 


tral Park, New York, was such a stone 
from the temple of the sun. In point of 
magnitude and cost of erection, the public 
buildings of Egypt exceed all others of 
antiquity. 

The architecture of Greece is without 
a rival. No doubt Greek architects learned 
from other countries, possibly Babylonia, 
certainly from Egypt. Not a single 
Grecian temple is standing intact, but 
enough may be seen to warrant the asser¬ 
tion that in simplicity and harmony, and 
in the beauty of form and proportion, the 
work of the Greeks has never been sur¬ 
passed. Compared with the exquisite 
workmanship of the Greeks, the finest and 
most impressive specimens of the building 
art found in the countries previously men¬ 
tioned, seem crude and lacking in refine¬ 
ment,—the products of creative minds, 
but of minds lacking in delicacy and good 
taste. If we except certain ancient ruins 
of uncertain significance, it may be said 
that the Greeks were not acquainted with 
the use of the arch. Spaces were bridged 
by single slabs of stone. Supporting coL 
umns were necessarily near together. 
Domes and vaulted ceilings were wanting. 
The prevailing lines, the lines followed by 
the eye, were horizontal. The earlier 
temples of Greece, as may be inferred 
from drawings on ancient vases and refer¬ 
ences in literature, may have been con¬ 
structed of wood; but the famous temples, 
of which at least thirty merit mention 
as of high rank, were built of marble. 
The exteriors, especially the cornices and 
friezes, as we now learn, were richly col¬ 
ored with Tyrian dyes; colored tiling was 
no doubt employed, and gold was used 
freely in gilding the statues of the gods 
within; but the real quality of the Grecian 
temple consists in a certain purity of form 
and the sense of proportion that not only 
delights the eye of the observer, but satis¬ 
fies his intellect. 

In general, the Grecian temple, like that 
of Egypt, was rectangular, and stood on 
a platform of stone approached by steps. 
A covered portico, entirely of marble and 
supported on marble columns, ran across 
the front, or in many cases entirely around 
the building. The temples were built in 



I 


ARCHITECTURE 


three styles, the Doric, the Ionic, and the 
Corinthian, similar in floor plan and struc¬ 
ture, but differing in ornamental details. 
The Doric temple was the plainest of the 
three. 

The columns, a prominent feature in all 
the temples, are a distinguishing feature by 
which the style of architecture may be 
known at once. Some think the round 
Egyptian column and the Grecian, as well, 
are the outgrowth of the pillars of rock 
left in the early rock-cut or cave temples to 
support the roof. A square pillar with 
its corners cut off becomes an octagonal 
pillar, and is well on its way to become 
a round column. However that may be, 
the columns of Doric architecture certain¬ 
ly resemble huge, powerful, shapely, un¬ 
adorned pine logs, standing on end. They 
are slightly larger at the lower end, the 
butt end of the log. Creases or flutings 
run up and down, suggestive of thick, 
shaggy bark, and as a further argument 
in favor of this view, it may be urged 
that historically the marble column re¬ 
places the log prop used, it is believed, 
in the construction of the earlier temples 
of Greece. As stated, the Doric column is 
perfectly plain. A log cut square at each 
end could not be more so. The capital 
that forms the tip of the column is a plain 
stone and the first course of slabs, called 
the architrave, that rests on the capitals 
and carries the frieze and the rest of the 
cornice and roof work, is composed of 
plain stones without ornament. The frieze 
or band resting on the architrave is di¬ 
vided into panels, two for each column, by 
projecting faces, or blocks of 6tone, called 
triglyphs from the fact that each is scored 
by two channels into three vertical fillets. 
These panels and the gable ends are 
adorned with sculpture. The Parthenon 
is admittedly the finest specimen of the 
Doric order. 

The Ionic column may be distinguished 
by a corded, distinct base, a fluted shaft, 
and a capital with four corners, each ter¬ 
minating in a spiral projection or volute, 
bearing a fanciful resemblance to the curl¬ 
ing tresses of some goddess. Frieze and 
gable may be severely plain or they may 
be adorned with legendary; scenes. 


The Corinthian order may be identified 
most readily by the capital. It is carved 
to resemble upright graceful leaves of 
which the fillets or ridges of the column 
are the stalks. In all the orders, the ex¬ 
act diameter, height, and taper of the col¬ 
umns, and their exact distance apart; the 
thickness of architrave, frieze, and cornice; 
the suitability of each to all, and the har¬ 
monizing of all with the size and dimen¬ 
sions of the whole building, must have 
been a profound study. The longer mod¬ 
ern architects measure and study the relics 
of Greek art, the greater becomes their re¬ 
spect and admiration for the knowledge 
and skill of the Greek architect. 

The Romans never approached the 
Greeks in point of beautiful buildings, but 
excelled them greatly in the magnitude 
and stability of their public works such as 
bridges, baths, aqueducts, roads, and fa¬ 
mous amphitheaters. By using the prin¬ 
ciple of the arch, rivers were spanned, 
trestles for aqueducts were built, lofty 
domes were reared, and spacious, uninter¬ 
rupted interiors were rendered possible. 
The Roman borrowed his ideas of deco¬ 
ration from the Greek; but columns were 
needed only at the ends of arches; level 
roofs gave way to vaulted ceilings, and, 
with the use of short material rectangular 
ground plans were varied at will. The 
great amphitheaters were oval. The Pan¬ 
theon was round. The arch, the dome, the 
circle, the oval, and the ellipse were added 
to the world’s stock of available architec¬ 
tural knowledge. Some account of the 
Pantheon, the Colosseum, and the Forum 
may be found under separate topics. 

The architecture of the Middle Ages 
took the form of churches and tombs. The 
early Christians developed a form of 
church from the Roman basilica, frequent¬ 
ly with a central circular dome, spanning 
a square ground plan. The great Cathe¬ 
dral of St. Mark’s at Venice is a combina¬ 
tion of Roman and eastern architecture 
known as Byzantine. The spread of the 
Moslem power was accompanied by a 
multiplication of mosques, palaces, and 
tombs. The most wonderful of all Moor¬ 
ish architecture is the Alhambra, of which 
some account is given under that name. 


t 


ARCHITECTURE 


Out of the round Roman arch grew the 
pointed arch, somewhat indefinitely known 
as the Gothic. The famous cathedrals of 
western Europe are chiefly Gothic. The 
cathedrals of Notre Dame, Rheims, Rou¬ 
en, Chartres, Amiens, Strasburg, Cologne, 
Nuremberg, Munich, Milan, Salisbury, 
Canterbury, York, and Winchester, as well 
as Melrose Abbey and Westminster Abbey, 
are of this class. Their long aisles, flanked 
by columns and surmounted by vaulted 
ceilings with pointed arches, all executed, 
be it remembered, in stone, are wondrous- 
ly suggestive of avenues and vistas of fine 
old trees with branches interarching over¬ 
head. The lines of the Greek temple car¬ 
ried the eye from side to side in pleased 
delight. The pointed arches, towers, and 
spires of the Gothic cathedral conduct the 
eye upward and give the observer a feeling 
of awe, of littleness in the presence of 
limitless height above. 

About the beginning of the sixteenth 

century a movement set in to return to 

the level and more economical lines of 

the Grecian stvles. This was called the 
* 

Renaissance, or rebirth, as it were, of clas¬ 
sical art. A large number of the fine old 
town halls and castles of Germany, in¬ 
cluding the extensive ruins of Heidelberg, 
are of this indefinite style which shades 
off into the business blocks of our mod¬ 
ern cities. 

In America the pueblo dwellings of the 
Zuni Indians, the temples of the Aztecs, 
the extensive ruins found in Central Amer¬ 
ica, and the palaces of Peru, all find place 
in an extended history. They are remark¬ 
able and apparently independent develop¬ 
ments of the building art; though some 
see a Chinese influence which they suppose 
to have been brought across the Pacific 
by castaway mariners from China, or to 
have come by way of Bering Strait. 

All sorts of architectural ideas have been 
inherited from Europe. Many of our 
back streets and country lanes look like 
bits of the Old World dropped down in 
America. In Albany old houses present 
their gables to the street as they do in 
Holland. In New Orleans the second 
stories project over the narrow streets as 
they do in France. In Pennsylvania one 


may find villages apparently transported 
bodily from Germany. Still there are cer¬ 
tain American types. The log house has 
an individual identity. The colonial house, 
most frequently seen in Virginia and the 
South, may be recognized by a lofty front 
portico with pillars. The English country 
house is reproduced in the White House at 
Washington. The John Hancock house 
of Boston, the brownstone front of New 
York, and the box-like frame house with 
its L or lean-to are other types. 

For large buildings steel construction 
now prevails in American architecture, 
which leads the world in this respect. The 
development of this form of construction 
in our large cities is due, first, to the rap¬ 
idly increasing value of real estate, which 
makes tall buildings desirable, and second, 
to the necessity for rapid completion of all 
building enterprises, in order to secure 
early returns on the capital invested. With 
foundations usually carried down to bed¬ 
rock, steel frame construction is used for 
buildings twenty, thirty, and even fifty 
stories in height; and the lower floors may 
be occupied by tenants long before the 
upper stories are completed. In some 
cities the height of such buildings is lim¬ 
ited by ordinance, but their safety and 
utility having been proved by experience 
the tendency is to remove such restrictions. 

In modern steel construction, the foun¬ 
dation is of the utmost importance and in¬ 
volves the most careful engineering design. 
In the case of large and heavy buildings, 
the foundations are usually laid by con¬ 
cerns that make a specialty of such work, 
employing various methods to suit differ¬ 
ent soils and the total estimated weight per 
square foot of the proposed building with 
its contents. In soft soils, piles are driven 
deep; in others, wide platforms of con¬ 
crete, or of steel rails imbedded in cement, 
inverted arches, or concrete piles are used, 
and occasionally it is necessary to sink 
pneumatic caissons through quicksand to 
reach a solid bottom. The work of exca¬ 
vation and laying a satisfactory founda¬ 
tion often takes longer than the erection 
of the steel superstructure. Hollow steel 
piles, driven to bedrock, cleaned out by 
compressed air, and then filled with con- 



ARCTIC ANIMALS 

1 Polar Bear. 2. Wolverine. 3. Blue Fox 4. Arctic Hare. 5. Lemming. 6. Reindeer. 7. Musk 
Ox 8 Walrus. 9. Seal. 10. Sea Otter. 11. Greenland Whale. 12. Norwhal. 13. Ptarmigan. 
14. Snowy Owl. 15. Eider Drake. 16. Eider Duck. 17. Razor-bill. IS. Arctic Gull. 

NORTH TEMPERATE ANIMALS 

1 Raccoon 2 Porcupine. 3. Mountain Sheep. 4. Alpine Goat. 5. Pronghorn. 6. Bison. 7. 
Prairie Dog 8. Grizzly Bear. 9. Skunk. 10. Vulture. 11. Mocking-Bird. 12. Bluebird. 13. Hum- 
mingbird. 14 Wild Turkey 15. Prairie Chicken 16. Rattlesnake. 17. Moccasin. 18. Horned 
Toad 19 Eel Lizard 20 Axolotl, 






ARCTIC REGIONS 


Crete, are frequently used for the founda¬ 
tion when possible. 

The steel-pile foundation has made steel 
buildings possible in many places where it 
would have been unprofitable to lay any 
other kind of foundation. Where water is 
encountered by the builder at a depth of 
many feet from the surface, the steel pile 
can be driven through the stream to rock 
bottom without any difficulty, and this 
method is also much less expensive than 
other forms of securing a foundation for 
large buildings, especially the old open- 
pit method. The load capacity of a steel 
pile is also an important consideration in 
modern building. One hundred tons can 
be safely carried on a single 12-inch steel 
pile, and in heavy buildings the founda¬ 
tions may consist of piers containing six¬ 
teen steel piles each, capable of sustaining 
a load up to 1,300 tons. Experience also 
shows that steel pile foundations are dur¬ 
able, with little or no oxidation (rust) 
after many years of service. 

In steel construction, a skeleton or frame 
of steel is set upon and securely bolted to 
the foundations. This framework consists 
of continuous vertical posts or supports of 
wrought iron or steel, erected at suitable 
intervals of from 10 to 16 feet, according 
to the building plans, with horizontal gird¬ 
ers connecting them at each story. All 
these members of the structure are rigidly 
bolted or riveted together, and diagonal 
braces of steel are inserted to resist side 
strains and wind pressure. The result, 
before the brick masonry or other outer 
skin of the building is applied, presents 
the appearance of a huge rectangular cage, 
sometimes towering above the ground to a 
height that gave the original buildings of 
this character the name of “skyscrapers.” 
This steel skeleton supports all the loads 
and strains of the building when it is com¬ 
pleted. The exterior walls, sometimes of 
cut stone, sometimes of fireproof brick, 
often of stone below and brick above, and 
occasionally of glazed tile, are carried by 
the framework, each story having its own 
independent outer wall, supported on a 
metal shelf which forms part of the girder 
of next story. The structural iron or steel 
comes to the building site with every col¬ 


umn and beam of proper size and shape for 
its place in the structure, and suitably 
marked, so that there is no delay in setting 
up the frame, and the bolting and riveting 
of the steel is accomplished by the aid of 
pneumatic hammers with a speed that ap¬ 
pears like magic to the inexperienced eye. 
The men who do the work at dizzy heights 
above street levels constitute a body of 
specially trained artisans, organized into 
a distinct trade. The walls of the build¬ 
ing can be erected without the aid of 
special scaffoldings, for the masonry or 
brickwork can be laid from the inside of 
each story, the steelwork furnishing the 
necessary shelf or platform for each suc¬ 
cessive operation. Thus a building of 
twenty or thirty stories can be erected and 
covered in within a period of a few 
months; and as stated the lower floors may 
be occupied by tenants and rentals begin 
to accrue long before the upper stories 
receive their interior finish. 

Without steel construction the modern 
city in America would be impossible, for 
it is only by the employment of the steel 
frame that great cities such as New York, 
Chicago and others can be expanded up¬ 
ward. 

Arctic Regions, a term applied to that 
part of the world, both land and water, 
situated within, that is to say north of, 
the Arctic Circle. Instead of coming to 
a slight peak, as one might imagine from 
maps, the north pole at the center of this 
region is really the most flattened portion 
of the earth’s surface, more so than the 
south pole, as there are no snowfields in 
the extreme north. The Arctic Circle is 
everywhere 23° 68' or 1,408 geographic 
miles from the north pole. The diameter 
of the Arctic region is, therefore, 2,816 
miles, and its area, counting land and wa¬ 
ter, is 8,201,883 square miles, or more than 
twice that of the United States. The cir¬ 
cle is 8,640 miles long, rather more than 
a third as long as the equator. About 
four-fifths of the Arctic Circle may be 
traced on land. Three passages of water 
lead into the Arctic Ocean. The widest 
separates Greenland from Norway; the 
second lies between Greenland and the 
continent of North America; the third, 


ARCTIC REGIONS 


Bering Sea and Strait, separates Alaska 
from Asia. The Arctic coast is for the 
most part low and comparatively level. 
Dreary tundras, the most inhospitable re¬ 
gions in the world, stretch along the sea. 
The coasts of Norway and Lapland are 
important exceptions. 

In Europe forests of pine trees and larch 
extend beyond the Arctic Circle. Dwarf 
birches and low, matted willows are found 
still farther north. The arctic poppy and 
other flowering plants are not without 
beauty. Vast tracts of land are frozen 
to a depth of two or three hundred feet. 
The surface thaws out a foot or two in 
the short summer and produces millions 
of acres of the lichen on which the rein¬ 
deer and musk ox feed. The polar bear 
lives more on sea than on land. Fishing 
birds of many kinds, gulls, little auks, 
kittiwakes, guillemots, and fulmars, are 
found on rocky coasts. The eider duck 
and other swimming birds nest on the 
coast. 

A belt of shallow water encircles the 
Arctic Ocean. It is thought that the 
northern coast of Europe, Asia, and Amer¬ 
ica has sunk beneath the sea, and that the 
islands, such as Spitzbergen and Franz 
Josef Land, are the tips of former eleva¬ 
tions. Vast stretches of this submarine 
plateau are no more than 300 or 1,000 
feet below the sea. During the greater 
part of the year, the larger part of these 
waters are ice bound. The width of the 
plateau has not been definitely determined, 
but it is known that the center of the Arc¬ 
tic Ocean about the north pole is deep 
and that it is warmer in midwinter than 
the shallow margin we have been describ¬ 
ing. 

Arctic waters are said to be of exceeding 
clearness, with beautiful ultramarine and 
olive green tints. The margin of the 
Arctic Ocean is inhabitated by numerous 
species of fishes, the food of various seals; 
the walrus is found on the banks, digging 
for clams. A species of codfish is pursued 
far into the interior ocean by the polar 
shark. The right whale, or Greenland 
whale, was formerly abundant in the shal¬ 
low polar seas, but it has been sadly re¬ 
duced in number by the persistent whalers 
of New Bedford. 


The central deep Arctic Sea seems to 
contain but little life. It is so densely 
packed with broken ice that ships have 
not been able to penetrate it. It is said 
to be free from the violent storms of the 
tropics, yet changes of winds fling the 
floating ice into long windrows like ranges 
of hills. A strongly built ship, abandoned 
in one edge of the ice packs, has drifted 
through and emerged on the other side. 
For some account of the ship Fram and 
her crew, the reader is referred to an arti¬ 
cle on Captain Nansen. 

Aside from its depth, one reason for the 
open polar sea is the constant circulation 
of waters. Along the east side of each of 
.the three passages opening into southern 
waters, a stream of warm water runs in; 
and currents of cold water run out along 
the western sides, carrying floe ice and ice¬ 
bergs far to the southward. To the great¬ 
est of the warm streams, a continuation of 
the Gulf Stream, the moderate climate of 
Arctic Norway, and the vegetation of Lap- 
land is due. In fact, the coldest parts of 
the Arctic regions are by no means the 
nearest the north pole. Central Green¬ 
land, Northeast SiDeria, and the vicinity 
of the Perry Islands, north of North 
America, are considered the coldest lo¬ 
calities. The greatest natural cold ever 
actually registered on a thermometer was 
ninety below zero, —90° F., north of 
Yakutsk, only fifty miles north of the 
Arctic Circle. The lowest temperature 
ever noted in the central polar sea was 
—63°F. 

One railway enters the north frigid zone. 
It runs from a point on the Gulf of Both¬ 
nia in Sweden to Afoten fiord on the coast 
of Norway. It was built to reach the 
famous Swedish iron ores of Malmberg. 
In the summer there is a regular tourist 
service to the “Land of the Midnight Sun.” 
The engineer blows his whistle as the train 
crosses the Arctic Circle. 

During the past century, 200 ships and 
4,000 lives have been lost in Arctic waters. 
It is estimated that the vast sum of 
$100,000,000 has been expended in Arctic 
voyages. Exploration of the Arctic Sea 
has been carried on largely by dog trains, 
traveling on the drifting, breaking fields 
of ice. In 1896 Nansen, a Norwegiak 


THE ENDS OF THE EARTH DISCOVERED 


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Copyright, 1908. by Doubleday, Page & Co. 


LIEUT. ROBERT E. PEARY 


In His Suit of Furs on the Deck of The Roosevelt 

























ARCTURUS—AREOPAGUS 


explorer, reached a point in 86° 14', north 
of Franz Josef Land. In 1901, Abruzzi, 
an Italian, attained 86° 33'. In 1906 
Robert Peary, an American, forced his 
way to 87° 6' north, 201 miles from the 
pole. 

In 1909 Frederic A. Cook announced 
that he had planted the American flag at 
the north pole April 21, 1908. A few days 
later a telegram arrived from Commander 
Peary, stating that there was no foundation 
for Cook’s assertion, and that he, Peary, 
had discovered the north pole. The Amer¬ 
ican Geographical Society thereupon 
passed upon Peary’s claim, with the result' 
that he was awarded a gold medal. He 

confirmed the theory of an open polar sea. 

The following is a record of the prin¬ 
cipal polar quests: 


Miles 
Latitude from 

Year. Explorer. Reached. Pole. 

1588—John Davis .72:12 1,235 

1594—William Barents .77:20 879 

1596—Rup Heemskerck.79:49 706 

1607—Henrick Hudson .80:23 667 

1616—William Baffin .77:45 861 

1806—Wm. Scoresby .81:30 587 

1827—W. E. Parry .82:45 503 

1854—E. K. Kane .80:10 682 

1868—Nordenskjold .81:42 573 

1870—C. F. Hall .82:11 542 

1874—Julius Payer .82:05 549 

1876—G. S. Nares .83:20 463 

1879—Geo. De Long . 77:36 871 

1882—A. W. Greely.83:24 458 

1896— Frithjof Nansen .86:14 261 

1897— Walter Wellman .81:35 555 

1897—Duke De Abruzzi .86 : 33 238 

1906—Robert E. Peary .87:06 201 

190Q—Robert E. Peary .90:00 000 


See Antarctic ; Amundsen ; Hudson ; 
Kane; Nordenskjold; De Long; 
Franklin; Greely; Nansen; Peary. 

Arcturus, ark-tu'rus, as supposed by 
many astronomers, the nearest of the stars. 
It is situated in the constellation Bootes 
in the northern heavens. It shines with a 
red light. It is supposed to be a body 
like our own sun. It is evidently moving 
southward slowly through the heavens. It 
has moved a degree since the days of Ptol¬ 
emy. It is thought by Professor C. A. 
Young that “Arcturus ogives the earth as 
much heat as would be received from a 
standard candle 5.8 miles away.” One 
writer hazards the statement that Arcturus 
is 1,500,000 times as far away as the sun, 


that it has a diameter of 71,000,000 miles, 
and that its bulk is 551,000 times that of 
the sun. . See Star. 

Canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?—■ 
Job xxxviii: 32. 

Arden, Forest of, the largest forest in 
early Britain. It lay chiefly in modem 
Warwickshire. The scene of Shakes¬ 
peare’s play of As You Like It is laid in 
the forest of Arden, which, however, was 
but a fragment of the forest of old. 

Ardennes, Forest of, an extensive for¬ 
est of Gaul. In Caesar’s time it occupied 
the lower plains of the Rhine. Some writ¬ 
ers say that it extended to the North Sea. 
The name is still retained by the French 
department of Ardennes. Portions of the 
forest still remain in Ardennes, Luxem¬ 
burg, and Belgium. In Quentin Dunuard 
Walter Scott, it may be remembered, calls 
William de la Marck “the Wild Boar of 
Ardennes.” The name, in a somewhat 
shortened form, recurred in England in 
the Arden Forest of Warwickshire. ^ 

Ardmore, Okla., the county seat of 
Carter Co., is 100 miles south of Okla¬ 
homa City, and is entered by 4 important 
railroads. Since early in its history, Ard¬ 
more has been an important cotton market, 
and for a time maintained the record of 
being the greatest inland cotton market in 
the world. Asphalt mining and oil re¬ 
fining are the two other chief industries. 
Owing to its location immediately south of 
the Arbuckle mountains, the city has a 
milder climate than have cities in the 
northern part of the state. It contains high 
and graded schools, two academies, an 
Indian school for girls, and a public 
library. Population, 1920, 14,181. 

Areop'agus, in ancient Athens, a vener¬ 
able council of wise men, taking its name 
from a hill on which it was wont to meet. 
Its meetings were held in the open air. 
It appears originally to have been a meet¬ 
ing of petty chieftains, or clan elders. At 
its best, it appears to have had a well 
filled treasury and to have been a sort of 
supreme court, exercising power of life 
and death, and having authority to guard 
the morals of Attica. Its functions and 
membership were amended by Solon. It 
gradually declined. See Athens. 





















ARES—ARGENTINA 


Ares, the Greek god of war, identified 
with the Latin Mars. See Mars. 

Arethusa, ar-e-thu'sa, in Grecian my¬ 
thology, a beautiful nymph. A river god 
of the Olympian region became enamored 
of her, and she prayed to Diana, who 
opened a subterranean passage for her un¬ 
der the sea to Ortygia, Sicily, whither, 
however, the river god pursued her. The 
basis for the legend is the fact that the riv¬ 
er Alpheus passes underground repeatedly, 
and reappears again in the limestone rocks 
of Arcadia. A beautiful fountain gushes 
forth in Sicily. The imagination of the 
Greeks supplied the rest of the story. The 
name of this sea nymph has been bestowed 
upon one of our most beautiful flowers. It 
is found in swamps from Newfoundland 
to Minnesota and southward to the moun¬ 
tains of North Carolina. 

Our Arethusa is one of the prettiest of the 
orchids, and has been pursued through many a 
marsh and quaking bog by her lovers. She is 
a bright pink-purple flower an inch or more 
long, with the odor of sweet violets. The se¬ 
pals and petals rise up and arch over the column, 
which we may call the heart of the flower, 
as if shielding it.—Burroughs, Riverby. 

Argand, Amie, a Swiss physician and 
chemist. Born at Geneva about the middle 
of the eighteenth century. Died 1803. 
He is noted as the inventor of the Argand 
lamp. The use of the old-fashioned round 
wick was always attended with smoke and 
more or less of foul smell, owing to an im¬ 
perfect combustion of the carbon in the 
oil. A flat wick is a great improvement 
upon the round one, as it enables more air 
to reach the flame. Argand conceived the 
plan of circular wicks shaped like a hol¬ 
low cylinder, admitting air to the flame on 
the inside as well. He also patented an 
invention for a slow feed from a reservoir, 
thus keeping the surface of the oil at the 
same level. The French Revolution an¬ 
nulled his patents from which he appears 
to have received little profit, but a great 
deal of annoyance. See Lamp. 

Argentina, ar'jen-ti'na, or Argentine 
Republic, a country of South America. 
The name is Spanish from the Latin argen¬ 
tum, meaning silver. 

History. The* history of the country 
is in many respects that of our original 


thirteen states. At first a Spanish settle¬ 
ment on the west bank of the La Plata, 
it had its full share of trouble with In¬ 
dians. Settlements were wiped out by 
midnight attacks, and tribes were exter¬ 
minated. In common with other South 
American states, Argentina extended and 
prospered as a colony of Spain. The set¬ 
tlers engaged largely in the raising of 
cattle. With growing strength, Argentina 
incited its neighbors to join in a revolu¬ 
tionary war that lasted for seven years. 
July 9, 1816, a declaration of independ¬ 
ence was issued, and Argentina ceased to 
be a province of Spain. In 1853 a consti¬ 
tution modeled on that of the United 
States was adopted. The president and 
vice-president hold office for six years and 
senators are chosen for a term of nine 
years. The republic consists of fourteen 
states and ten territories. Buenos Ayres is 
the capital. Spanish is the official lan¬ 
guage. Catholicism is the national re¬ 
ligion. 

In 1892 a long standing boundary dis¬ 
pute with Chili was settled. Several times 
the controversy nearly led the countries 
into war, and on the boundary on the 
crest of the Andes, a large statue, The 
Christ of the Andes, was erected to com¬ 
memorate a lasting peace. 

Extent of Territory. The original 
boundaries have been extended northward 
and southward, until Argentina now in¬ 
cludes that part of South America, lying 
east of the Andes as far as the La Plata, 
from Bolivia to Darwin Sound. Patago¬ 
nia no longer appears on a map as a no 
man’s land, having been divided—rocks, 
ice, penguins, Patagonians, and all—be¬ 
tween Argentina and Chile. The extreme 
width of the republic is 1,000 miles. 
From the southern boundary to the north¬ 
ern is a distance of 2,000 miles. The to¬ 
tal area is 1,153,119 square miles, far 
exceeding that of our Atlantic States. 

Climate. The range of climate and 
variety of productions are even greater 
than is the case on our Atlantic coast. The 
northeast portion of Argentina lies low, 
and is no farther from the equator than is 
Florida. Cotton, olives, figs, lemons, 
oranges, grapes, tobacco, sugar-cane, and 


I 


ARGENTINA 


orchard fruits are produced in abundance. 

In 1920, Argentina was the world’s larg¬ 
est exporter of linseed and corn, and was 
third in wheat exports. 

Minerals. The eastern slope of the 
Andes, from the Strait of Magellan north¬ 
ward to Bolivia, contains mineral wealth, 
*—gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, bismuth, 
borate of lime, salt, coal and petroleum, 
mecury, marble, and asphalt. 

Agriculture. In disposing of public 
lands, Argentina has been more liberal 
even than the United States. In addition 
to free homestead grants, the government 
has loaned the settler $1,000 for the pur¬ 
chase of a team, implements, stock, and 
seed, to be repaid in five years. Vast 
districts are devoted to grazing. Butter, 
beef, tallow, hides, and leather are pro¬ 
duced in enormous quantities and are sold 
largely to England. Argentina has ad¬ 
vanced very rapidly as a grain growing 
and stock raising country; in the produc¬ 
tion of wheat and beef cattle she now 
takes high rank among the nations. There 
are 250,000,000 acres of land in the coun¬ 
try that are ideal for the raising of cattle. 
The government holds tracts of land suit¬ 
able for pastoral colonization that total 
237,768,000 acres in area, and these lands 
are conditionally offered free. 

Commerce. Being in the southern 
hemisphere, the spring season comes at 
the time of our autumn, summer at the 
time of our winter. The wheat harvest 
falls in January, and the new wheat is 
thrown on the market at a time when 
northern fields are covered with snow. 
Argentina has so much produce to sell, 
timber, minerals, products of the stock 
ranges, fruits, and grains, that, although 
the merchants of that country buy over 
$400,000,000 worth of cloth, paper, bever¬ 
ages, chemicals, and pottery abroad, there 
is still at the end of the year $60,000,000 
coming to them from foreign countries. 
About one-tenth of this business is done 
with the United States. They buy petro¬ 
leum oil and agricultural implements and 
many other articles of us, and sell us a 
good share of the hides and leather that 
go into the shoe factories of Lynn and 
other New England towns. 


The population of Argentina is steadily 
increasing, and continual extension of her 
railroads, and telephone and telegraph 
lines serves to secure her economic in¬ 
tegrity. 

A system of free public schools and nor¬ 
mal schools has been established with care, 
the latter partly under the direction of 
instructors obtained from the United 
States. Manufactures are getting under 
way. The republic has the resources, the 
thrift, and the intelligent public spirit 
that insures national greatness. It is des¬ 
tined to be the second country of the New 
World. 

Statistics. The following statistics 
are the latest from trustworthy sources: 


Land area, square miles . 1,153,119 

Forest area, acres . 96,250,000 

Irrigated area, acres . 10,000,000 

Population (1921) . 8,698,516 

Immigrants (1920) . 188,688 

Emigrants (1920) . 148,907 

Chief Cities: 

Buenos Ayres . 1,674,000 

Rosario . 222,592 

Cordoba . 156,000 

Tucuman . 91,216 

La Plata . 90,436 

Santa Fe . 59,574 

Mendoza . 58,790 

Bahia Blanca . 44,143 

Number of provinces . 14 

Members of state senate . 30 

Members of house of representatives 120 

National revenue .$205,000,000 

National indebtedness .$642,622,450 

Farm area, acres . 250,000,000 

Improved land, acres . 62,500,000 

Wheat, bushels . 169,756,000 

Oats, bushels . 47,606,000 

Corn, bushels . 230,423,000 

Wool, pounds . 300,000,000 

Flax seed, bushels . 42,038,000 

Barley, bushels . 11,161,000 

Sugar cane, short tons . 230,990 

Domestic Animals: 

Cattle . 27,392,126 

Horses . 9,366,455 

Asses . 565,069 

Sheep . 45,303,419 

Goats . 4,670,130 

Swine . 3,227,346 

Imports .$367,000,000 

Exports .$531,000,000 

Industrial establishments . 48,779 

Capital invested .$893,831,000 

Operatives . 410,201 

Miles of railway . 21,858 

Teachers in public schools . 37,895 

Pupils enrolled . 1,201,273 

See Buenos Ayres. 











































ARGO—ARGUS 


Argo. See Argonauts. 

Argon, ar'gon, an element in the air 
discovered in 1894 by Professors Strutt 
(Lord Rayleigh) and Ramsay of Eng¬ 
land. A hundred years earlier Cavendish 
suggested the existence of such a gas. The 
discoverers of argon were led to the new 
element by noticing that nitrogen obtained 
from air was always heavier by one-half 
of one per cent than that prepared from 
compounds. Investigation proved that at¬ 
mospheric nitrogen had mixed with it an 
element new to science. On further in¬ 
vestigation of argon obtained from liquid 
air, it has been found that argon is as¬ 
sociated with minute quantities of yet oth¬ 
er unsuspected elements. Under ordinary 
conditions, argon is an odorless, tasteless, 
colorless gas. Argon liquefies under a 
pressure of 40 atmospheres at a tempera¬ 
ture of —184° F., and freezes at —310° 
F. As a liquid it is denser than water. 
Little is known of argon’s chemical prop¬ 
erties save that it is inert and does not 
combine with any other element. See Air. 
Argonne Forest. See War, the Great. • 

Argonauts, in the legends of Greece, a 
band of Greek adventurers. They were so 
called from their ship, Argo, in which they 
nailed from Iolcos in Thessaly to distant 
Colchis, somewhere on the unknown shores 
of the Black Sea. Jason, the leader of the 
expedition, associated with himself fifty 
daring spirits of his neighborhood, includ¬ 
ing Hercules, Castor and Pollux, Orpheus, 
Telamon, Theseus, and others. Their er¬ 
rand was to bring home the golden fleece 
which hung in a consecrated grove at Col¬ 
chis, guarded by a dragon. Their numer¬ 
ous adventures would fill quite a volume 
if related in detail. Pollux distinguished 
himself in a boxing contest in which he 
overpowered King Amycus and bound him 
to a tree. Two of the party slew the har¬ 
pies that polluted the food of the blinded 
and aged king Phineas, who, in return, 
told the way to Colchis. They had to go 
between the cliffs that had an inconvenient 
habit of closing up and crushing whoever 
sought to pass. This passage the band ac¬ 
complished by sending a dove in advance. 
Orpheus played his most entrancing tunes 
on a lyre, while the others rowed with all 


their might. The rocks were so enchanted 
that they stood, firm on their base, unable 
to move until the party had escaped. Ar¬ 
riving finally at Colchis, Jason, the leader, 
found a friend in Medea, the daughter 
of King Aetes. The king agreed to de¬ 
liver up the golden fleece on condition that 
Jason should perform three dangerous la¬ 
bors. First, he was required to yoke to a 
plow two fire-breathing bulls with hoofs 
of brass, and to plow the field of Mars. 
Next, he sowed the field with dragons’ 
teeth from which armed men Sprang up. 
These he overcame one by one. Medea 
assisted him with the third task by giving 
the dragon a soothing draught. Jason 
slew the dragon, received the fleece, and 
set out on his return, accompanied, it is 
needless to say, by the princess. After va¬ 
rious additional adventures, including the 
escape from her father, who pursued the 
retreating band, the Argonauts returned 
safely home. 

It has been suggested that some com¬ 
mercial enterprise, possibly an expedition 
to open a new avenue of commerce, possi¬ 
bly to meet the caravans of Asia, may be 
at the foundation of the legend. The 
term argonauts has been applied since to 
various bodies of adventurers, especially to 
the “Argonauts of ’49,” or “The Forty- 
niners,” the early seekers of gold in Cali¬ 
fornia. 

Argus, in Greek legend, a giant having 
a hundred eyes. Hera noticed one day 
that it had grown suddenly dark. She at 
once suspected that Zeus, her husband, was 
trying to conceal something from her view. 
She, therefore, blew away the cloud and 
found Zeus with a beautiful white heifer 
standing beside him. Hera was right in 
her suspicions. Zeus had been making love 
to Io, daughter of Inachus, the river god, 
and on his wife’s approach had changed 
Io into a heifer. The wise Hera asked 
Zeus to give the heifer to her, and he could 
not well refuse. Lest Io be returned to 
mortal shape, Hera set the hundred-eyed 
Argus to watch her. For a time all went 
well, for Argus could sleep with some of 
his eyes open, and so never lost sight of 
his charge. But Io was unhappy. Zeus 
pitied her and sent Mercury to her aid. 


ARGYLL—ARIEL 


Mercury sat beside the giant, told long 
stories, and played the most soothing melo¬ 
dies upon his Pandean pipes. At last the 
hundred eyes were closed. With one 
stroke, Mercury cut off the giant’s head. 
Hera took the hundred bright eyes and 
with them ornamented the tail of her pea¬ 
cock, where they may be seen this day. 
According to the theory that all myths 
are symbolical, Io of this legend has been 
interpreted to represent the moon, and the 
eyes of Argus are the stars, keeping cease¬ 
less watch over her. The name Argus is 
often used to designate an observant or 
keen-sighted person. It is also a favorite 
name for a newspaper, implying that the 
editor has ever an eye open to the public 
good. See Io; Hera. 

Argyll, John Douglas Sutherland, 
ninth Duke of (1845-1914), an English 
statesman and author. He is best known 
as the Marquis of Lome. Born in Lon¬ 
don, he was educated at Eton, St. An¬ 
drews University, and Trinity College, 
Cambridge. In 1868, Argyll was sent to 
Parliament as a Liberal from Argyllshire, 
which he represented until 1878. In 1871, 
he married Louise, the fourth daughter of 
Queen Victoria. From 1878 to 1883, he 
was Governor-General of Canada, and his 
administration was extremely popular and 
successful. Argyll served again in Par¬ 
liament from 1895 to 1900, this time as 
a Unionist. He wrote poetry, travel 
sketches and books on Scottish social his¬ 
tory. His principal works are A Trip to 
the Tropics, Imperial Federation, Ca¬ 
nadian Pictures , Life of Queen Victoria, 
Pages From the Past, and Yesterday and 
Today in Canada, and Canada, a National 
Hymn. 

Ariadne, ar-i-ad'ne, in Greek mytholo¬ 
gy, the daughter of Minos, king of Crete. 
The story runs that she fell in love with 
Theseus who had come from Athens to 
destroy the Minotaur. Ariadne gave The¬ 
seus a sword with which to .slay the Mino¬ 
taur, and a silken thread as a clue to guide 
him out of the labyrinth when the mon¬ 
ster should be killed. Theseus was suc¬ 
cessful in his undertaking, and the two 
fled from Crete. Theseus, however, was 
warned by Minerva that Ariadne was not 


to be his wife. He therefore abandoned 
her while sleeping on the island of Naxos. 
Ariadne awoke to find herself deserted. 
While bewailing her sorry fate, she was 
found by the god Bacchus, who straight¬ 
way made her his wife. He gave her a crown 
studded with gems as a wedding gift. On 
her death, the god threw this crown into 
the sky, where the gems still shine in a 
constellation known as the Northern 
Crown. Ariadne sleeping on the isle of 
Naxos furnishes the subject for one of the 
finest pieces of sculpture in Italy. It is 
spoken of as the Ariadne of the Vatican. 
The scene where Ariadne holds the thread 
to guide Theseus out of the labyrinth ap¬ 
pears on a very early vase preserved in 
the British Museum. 

Arianism, in theology, the doctrines of 
Arius and his school. Arius was presby¬ 
ter of the church of Alexandria in the 
fourth century. He was a Unitarian, hold¬ 
ing that Christ, the Son, was created by 
the Father and was subordinate to Him, 
though possessing a similar nature. The 
doctrine of Arius was condemned by the 
church at the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, 
which decreed that Christ was “of one 
substance with the Father.” The views 
of Arius were disseminated by fugitive 
Arians, and became the national religion 
of the Goths, Vandals, Suevi, and Longo- 
bardi, but these churches w r ere gradually 
received within the Catholic church, and 
the Arians as a sect faded away. See 
Nice. 

Ariel, a'ri-el, as popularly known, a 
tricksy spirit in Shakespeare’s Tempest. 
There seem to be several Ariels. In its 
Hebrew origin, the word signifies Lion of 
God. In the Old Testament, it is used 
both as an epithet and as a proper name. 
In the book of Isaiah, the name is given 
to Jerusalem. In Milton’s Paradise Lost, 
Ariel is one of the fallen angels. In 
Pope’s Rape of the Lock, Ariel is a sylph, 
the guardian of Belinda. In medieval leg¬ 
ends, Ariel was a spirit of the air, the 
guardian of innocence. Shakespeare’s 
Ariel is the messenger of Prospero. He 
becomes invisible at will, or assumes any 
desired shape in the service of his master. 
Prospero applies many epithets to him. 


ARIOTSI—ARISTIDES 


He calls him “delicate,” “dainty,” 
“quaint,” “tricksy,” a “brave spirit,” “my 
spirit,” a “minister of Fate,” “my industri¬ 
ous servant.” But Ariel loves liberty. 
“My Liberty, my Liberty,” he cries. Being 
denied he becomes “moody,” and Prospero 
calls him a “malignant thing,” though 
again confessing that he loves him “dear¬ 
ly.” 

TWO OF ARIEL’S SONGS. 

Full fathom five thy father lies; 

Of his bones are coral made; 

Those are pearls that were his eyes: 

Nothing of him that doth fade. 

But doth suffer a sea-change 

Into something rich and strange. 

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: 

Ding-dong. 

Hark! now I hear them,—Ding-dong, bell. 

Where the bee sucks, there suck I: 

In a cowslip’s bell I lie ; 

There I couch when owls do cry. 

On the bat’s back I do fly 

After summer merrily. 

Merrily, merrily shall I live now 

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 

Ariel is one of the most charming creations 
in the whole Shakespearian gallery. He is a 
creature all compact of grace and beauty. He 
is nimble and agile like the wind. To him, as 
to Puck, it would be nought “to put a girdle 
round about the earth in forty minutes.”—Smea- 
ton. 

Arion, a-ri'on, a Greek poet who flour¬ 
ished about 700 B. C. He was a native 
of Lesbos, but belonged rather to the Do¬ 
rian school of poets. Arion dwelt for the 
most part at the court of Periander, king 
of Corinth. He was regarded by the an¬ 
cients as the inventor of the dithyrambic 
meter. It is certain that he was the first 
to give finished form to the dithyramb, 
or choral hymn to Dionysus. Certain tra¬ 
ditions are attached to the name of Arion. 
The most noted is told ir> an ancient frag¬ 
mentary poem, said to have been written 
by Arion himself. The story runs that 
Arion wished to enter a musical contest 
in Sicily. Periander tried to dissuade him, 
but Arion decided to compete. He went to 
Sicily, won the prize, and embarked with 
his wealth for Corinth. During the voy¬ 
age he was warned by Apollo in a dream 
that the crew intended to slay him for his 
treasure. He laid his plans and, when 
they were about to attack him, he re¬ 
quested the privilege of singing his death 


song. This was granted, for some of the 
crew had a desire to hear so great a poet 
and musician. Arion sang a beautiful song 
to the music of his lyre, and immediately 
leaped into the sea. The sailors supposed 
him drowned, but one of the dolphins 
who had been drawn by the music to ap¬ 
proach the ship bore him safely to the 
shore. Arion bade his rescuer farewell 
and proceeded joyfully to the court of 
Periander. He arrived in the king’s pres¬ 
ence before the ship landed, and was thus 
able to confound the crew when they told 
Periander that they had left Arion safe 
and well in Tarentum, or, according to 
some accounts, that he was dead. Arion’s 
lyre and the dolphin were placed among 
the stars, while the sailors were put to 
death. This story has been told by the 
ancient poets with many embellishments, 
and Arion’s name is often mentioned by 
more modern writers. Says George Eliot: 

Arion whose melodic soul 

Taught the dithyramb to roll. 

Meantime some rude Arion’s restless hand 
Wakes the brisk harmony that sailors love; 

A circle there of merry listeners stand, 

Or to some well-known measure featly move 
Thoughtless, as if on shore they still were free to 
rove. —Byron. 

Ariosto (1474-1533), one of the great 
poets of Italy. He was a native of Reggio, 
Lombardy, and was bred to the law, but 
left it for poetry. He appears to have 
attached himself first to a cardinal, from 
whom he had a small pension, and later 
to the Duke of Ferrara. In Ferrara city, 
he built a modest home and devoted his 
abundant leisure to the production of 
poems, many of them in the Latin tongue. 
His chief work, however, and the one on 
which his fame rests, is a highly imagina¬ 
tive Italian romance in verse entitled Or¬ 
lando Furioso. It is drawn from Arabian 
sources. It consists chiefly of a series of 
tales and fantastic adventures strung to¬ 
gether with the love affairs of Ruggero 
and Bradamante, with whose happy mar¬ 
riage, as should ever be the case, the story 
ends. “Nature made him and then broke 
the mold,” is a translation from Canto X, 
Stanza 84, of this poem. 

Aristides, ar-is-ti'des, surnamed “the 
J.ust,” a citizen of Athens. He came into 


ARISTOPHANES 


prominence at the battle of Marathon, 490 
B. C., where he, with nine others, was 
appointed to lead the Athenian army, each 
taking command for a day. Aristides per¬ 
suaded his companions to devolve the en¬ 
tire command upon Miltiades, in whose 
military genius they had the greatest con¬ 
fidence. The overwhelming defeat of the 
Persians proved the wisdom of this ad¬ 
vice. We next hear of Aristides as op¬ 
posing the plans of Themistocles for build¬ 
ing ships. According to a law of Athens, 
any citizen might be banished for ten years 
by popular vote. Themistocles moved ac¬ 
cordingly for the ostracism of Aristides. 
During the voting an illiterate fellow, 
who did not know Aristides, came up to 
him and asked him to write his name on 
the piece of pottery used as a ballot. Aris¬ 
tides asked the voter whether Aristides had 
injured him. “No,” said the voter, “but 
I am weary of hearing him called Aristides 
the Just,” and thereupon, so runs the story, 
Aristides wrote his own name on the ballot 
and retired to the island of Aegina. Later 
he returned to his native shore in time to 
render Themistocles valuable assistance in 
the battle of Salamis, and was thereupon 
restored to popular favor. This account 
of Aristides would not be complete without 
the story of his further relations with 
Themistocles. The latter, having an¬ 
nounced that he had a plan to propose 
which could not be confided to a popular 
assembly, Aristides was appointed on a 
committee of three to inquire into the plan. 
Having ascertained that it contemplated 
a treacherous burning of all the ships of 
the rival Greek cities, then lying at har¬ 
bor, Aristides reported that the plan pro¬ 
posed was very advantageous, but dishon¬ 
orable; whereupon it was rejected without 
inquiry into its details. He died about 
468 B. C. See Themistocles. 

Aristophanes, ar'is-toph'a-nes (448- 
380 B. C.), the greatest comic poet of 
Greece. He is credited with having writ¬ 
ten fifty-four comedies, eleven of which 
are still extant. They were acted in pub¬ 
lic, and were a sort of “take-off” or run¬ 
ning commentary on public life. They 
throw light on Athenian manners and cus¬ 
toms. The Acharnians seeks to strengthen 


sentiment for peace with the Spartans. An 
honest countryman sends to Sparta for a 
sample of the proposed peace, and likes 
the taste so well that he concludes a treaty 
for himself and family. The Knights at¬ 
tacks the demagogues of the city, who are 
likened to rascally stewards. The Clouds 
assails the professed teachers of rhetoric, 
Socrates in particular. An indignant fa¬ 
ther, whose son has turned out both dis¬ 
honest and impious, proposes to burn both 
the philosopher and his school. The 
Wasps is directed against the Athenian 
love of lawsuits. A house dog, having 
stolen a cheese, is tried by his master for 
the offense. Through a love for the for¬ 
malities of law, the old man makes egre¬ 
gious blunders which result in the ludi¬ 
crous acquittal of the dog. In The Birds. 
the birds are persuaded to build a city in 
mid-air, so as to cut off the gods from man. 
Other plays as The Frogs, The Banqueters, 
The Merchantmen. The Storks, etc., are of 
a similar nature. Peace celebrates quiet 
and country life. A distressed Athenian 
sails up into the sky on a beetle’s back; he 
finds the gods busy pounding the Greek 
states in a mortar; he releases Peace from 
a well in which she is confined, induces the 
gods to lay aside pestle and mortar and 
concludes by marrying a handmaid of 
Peace. In The Knights, the following con¬ 
versation occurs between a sausage-seller 
and a leading demagogue: 

S. S. Are there any means of making a 
great man 

Of a sausage-selling fellow such as I ? 

Dem. The very means you have must make 
you so. 

Low breeding, vulgar birth, and impudence,—* 
These, these must make ye what ye’re meant to be. 

Tell me truly: are ye allied 
To the families of the gentry? 

S. S. Naugh, not I; 

I’m come from a common, ordinary kindred, 

Of the lower order. 

Dem. What a happiness! 

What a footing will it give ye ! What a ground¬ 
work 

For confidence and favor at your outset! 

S. S. But bless ye ! Only consider my edu¬ 
cation ! 

I can but barely read,—in a kind of a way. 

Dem. That makes against ye!—The onlj 
thing against ye,— 

The being able to read in any way. 


ARISTOTLE—ARITHMETIC 


Aristotle (384-322 B. C.), a Grecian 
philosopher. He was the son of a Mace¬ 
donian physician, but was early left an 
orphan, lie went to Athens at the age 
of eighteen to study with Plato. He re¬ 
mained under this great teacher for twen¬ 
ty years, and was called the intellect of 
the school. Philip of Macedon had ambi¬ 
tion for his son who afterward became 
Alexander the Great, and invited Aristotle 
to become his boy’s tutor. Three years la¬ 
ter Philip died and Alexander came to the 
throne at the age of twenty. Aristotle 
returned to Athens and opened a school 
of his own. Here he taught with great 
success until, on the death of Alexander, 
he retired to Euboea, where he died. Alex¬ 
ander is said to have sent Aristotle infor¬ 
mation gathered in his travels and wars, 
probably concerning new and curious 
plants, animals, shells, and the like. 

Aristotle wrote a large number of 
learned treatises. Scientific men declare 
that his was the greatest intellect 
that Greece produced. Goethe once said 
that if he could have an opportunity to 
live his life again he would devote it to 
a study of nature and Aristotle, adding, 
“It is beyond all conception what that 
man saw.” His various treatises constitute 
a sort of encyclopedia of Greek knowledge. 
Out of forty titles a few may be named 
as indicating the scope of his writings: 
Art of Rhetoric, Politics, Art of Poetry, 
On the Heavens, Researches about Ani¬ 
mals, On the Soul, On Sleep and Waking, 
On Dreams, On Youth and Old Age, On 
Parts of Animals, On Locomotion of Ani¬ 
mals, etc. 

In political matters Aristotle favored 
a large middle class, and thought that 
government should be in the hands of or¬ 
dinary average people, for neither the very 
rich nor the very poor, the very strong 
nor the very weak, the very noble nor 
the very mean are readily induced to hear 
reason. The one extreme is supercilious, 
the other is rascally. One extreme sins 
from insolence, the other from villainy. 
In ethics he taught that happiness con¬ 
sisted in working out one’s inward desires, 
and that every virtue is a golden mean 
between two vices. 


Aristotle introduced the term, four- 
footed, in the study of animals. He de¬ 
scribed about 150 birds, 20 reptiles, 116 
fishes, 60 insects and spiders, 24 crayfish 
and worms, and 40 clams, oysters, and 
radiates. His work in natural history was 
not improved for two thousand years. 

Aristotle is also called the Father of 
Logic. His use of the syllogism is still 
the basis of modern instruction as: 

All men are mortal; 

Socrates is a man; 

Therefore Socrates is mortal. 

Arithmetic, the art of computation, the 
most elementary branch of mathematics. 
The system of arithmetic in use among en¬ 
lightened nations is usually known as the 
Arabic, but it should be called the Hindu 
arithmetic. While the subject of elemen¬ 
tary geometry, with some indebtedness to 
the Egyptians and to the Phoenicians, is 
essentially a product of the Grecian, that 
is to say, of a European mind, our present 
system of elementary arithmetic was 
brought almost to its present degree of 
development by a kindred race in the fer¬ 
tile valleys of India. Several volumes of 
early Hindu learning have preserved a rec¬ 
ord of their arithmetic. The following 
problem from the Ganges is couched in 
the flowery language of the East. It dates 
about the year 500, a period when the 
Angles and Saxons were just getting the 
upper hand in the fens of eastern England. 

Beautiful maiden with beaming eyes, tell me, 
as thou understandest the right method of inver¬ 
sion, which is the number which multiplied by 
3, then increased by Y of the product, divided 
by 7, diminished by l /i of the quotient, multiplied 
by itself, diminished by 52, the square root ex¬ 
tracted, addition of 8, and division by 10, gives 
the number 2? 

Many other Hindu problems have been 
handed down implying a knowledge of in¬ 
terest, discount, partnership, alligation, 
arithmetical and geometrical series, and 
many curious methods for the solution of 
numerical puzzles. 

The sudden rise of the Moslem power 
in Arabia and its rapid expansion until 
it extended from India to the Pyrenees 
is phenomenal. Haroun-al-Raschid, the 
Charlemagne of the. Arabians, drew learn¬ 
ed men from all directions to his court 


ARITHMETIC 


at Bagdad. These men taught the Arabi¬ 
ans the mathematics of the West and of the 
East, the geometry of Greece and the 
arithmetic of India. This learning the 
Arabs carried along the northern coast of 
Africa into Spain, where they founded 
noted schools and universities at Cordova 
and elsewhere. European students, at¬ 
tracted by the fame of the Moslem uni¬ 
versities, resorted thither in disguise, it is 
said, and brought away a knowledge of 
the so-called Arabian arithmetic. It is 
supposed also that the merchants of south¬ 
ern Europe, dealing with Saracenic cus¬ 
tomers, obtained a practical knowledge of 
the mercantile arithmetic employed by the 
Arabian merchants. And so our school 
arithmetic in all its essential features orig¬ 
inated, so far as we know, among the 
Brahmins in the valley of the Ganges. It 
was carried by learned Hindus to Bagdad, 
it traveled thence to Spain, escaped to 
the early European universities or gained 
a footing among the Italian merchants, 
reached England, and, finally, was 
brought over to this country by English 
colonists with English textbooks. 

Arithmetic, however, as well as other 
branches of mathematics, took root slowly 
among the western nations. Up to within 
a hundred years of Columbus’ voyage, the 
University of Prague was considered pro¬ 
gressive for offering a course of lectures 
on the art of reckoning with the fingers. 
The scholarship of England was content, 
in Shakespeare’s day, with less mathemat¬ 
ical instruction in the great universities 
of Oxford and Cambridge than is now 
given in village schools. Now and then 
a master mathematician, a Napier or a 
Newton, appeared in private life or among 
the learned professors, but mathematical 
lectures were not popular. Gentlemen’s 
sons left arithmetic to “mere shopkeep¬ 
ers,” who in turn got on with exceedingly 
crude methods of casting accounts. A re¬ 
cent writer, referring to the still more re¬ 
cent neglect of arithmetic in the noted pre¬ 
paratory schools of England, as Eton, 
Harrow, and Rugby, remarks: “We are 
safe in saying that before the close of the 
past (18th) century the ordinary school 
boy of England’s famous Dublic schools 


could not divide 2,021 by 43, though such 
problems had been performed centuries be¬ 
fore by boys brought up on the banks of 
the Ganges.” 

In the American colonies, the college of 
William and Mary included a professor 
of mathematics in its first faculty, 1688, 
and thus enjoys the honor of having es¬ 
tablished the first American chair of math¬ 
ematics. In 1749 the college faculty 
granted George Washington a commission 
as a land surveyor, which we may suppose 
fairly exhausted the mathematical curricu¬ 
lum of that college. A member of the 
Yale class of 1714 testifies that common 
arithmetic and a little surveying were the 
full extent of the mathematical instruction 
received by his class. The records of Har¬ 
vard show that at this date two hours a 
week in the senior year were given to arith¬ 
metic, geometry, and astronomy, while al¬ 
gebra was not introduced until 1726. 

Of arithmetic in the elementary schools 
of the colonies little can be said; for ele¬ 
mentary schools existed only in the larger 
towns and the most favored localities. 
Arithmetic in the schools was confined to 
counting and to exceedingly simple com¬ 
binations of integral numbers, or was not 
taught at all. Ordinarily the teacher, un¬ 
less he were some collegian earning a trifle 
to help himself on his way, could not work 
in fractions, and indeed he was thought 
to do his whole duty if he kept order and 
taught the brighter children to read and 
write. 

After the close of the American Revo¬ 
lution educational facilities improved rap¬ 
idly. Arithmetic soon gained an acknowl¬ 
edged place in a boy’s education, but we 
were well on into the nineteenth century 
before arithmetic was considered suitable 
for girls. Arithmetic for boys, but needle¬ 
work and knitting for girls. 

As has been said, our earliest arithmet¬ 
ical ideas and our arithmetical texts were 
brought over from England. One of these 
early school books was a primer by George 
Fox, published in England in 1674, and 
subsequently republished in this country. 
It contained the alphabet, exercises in read¬ 
ing and spelling, explanations of Scripture 
names, Roman numerals, lessons in the 



ARITHMETIC 


fundamental rules of arithmetic and 
weights and measures, a perpetual almanac, 
and a Friends’ catechism. This book was 
popular in Philadelphia. Similar texts 
were used in New England and in Vir¬ 
ginia. Rodders’ Arithmetic, or That Nec¬ 
essary Art Made Most Easy, published in 
London, 1661, and republished in Boston 
in 1719, is said to be the first purely arith¬ 
metical book printed in this country. In 
his Autobiography Benjamin Franklin 
mentions Cocker’s Arithmetic as having 
been of great service to him. This text 
appeared in London in 1667 and was re¬ 
printed in Philadelphia during the Revo¬ 
lutionary War. It was an authority so 
long that “according to Cocker” became 
a proverb. Dilworthe’s Schoolmaster’s 
Assistant, the most popular of all English 
arithmetics used in this country, was pub¬ 
lished in London in 1744. Several Ameri¬ 
can editions appeared, the last in Albany 
as late as 1824. 

The first American arithmetic was writ¬ 
ten in 1729 by Isaac Greenwood, the first 
professor of mathematics in Harvard Col¬ 
lege. It was designed for the use of his 
college classes, and had little or no cir¬ 
culation outside. During the forty years 
which followed the Revolutionary War, a 
large number of arithmetics appeared in 
America. Three of these are famous,— 
The New and Complete System of Arith¬ 
metic, by Nicholas Pike, (Newburyport, 
1788) ; The Schoolmaster’s Assistant, by 
Nathan Daboll, 1800; and The Scholar’s 
Arithmetic, by Daniel Adams. Other 
arithmeticians and their numerous texts 
have passed from memory,, but Pike, 
Adams, and Daboll were held in affection¬ 
ate remembrance by the grandfathers of 
the generation now in school, and the 
names of these three are sure of a place in 
the list of American educators. 

Some of the characteristics of these ear¬ 
ly texts may be stated as follows: 

1. An imperfect and evasive treatment 
of fractions as though the author did not 
understand the subject. 

2. Cancellation was apparently un¬ 
known. 

3. The English system of periods of 
six places each was followed. A billion 
was considered a million million. 


4. No mental problems were given. 

5. The rule of three, proportion, was 
taught as a mere rule, ignoring ratios and 
their equality. 

6. Certain indirect solutions were 
sometimes introduced practically based on 
showing that results other than the right 
one were incorrect. 

7. An attempt was made to introduce 
pleasing and ethical features, such as puz¬ 
zles, and problems based on the expensive¬ 
ness of vice. 

8. Explanations were calculated mere¬ 
ly to explain the application or working of 
rules. No attempt was made to give rea¬ 
sons why a step was legitimate or why a 
certain operation gave a correct result. 

As might be expected, recitations were 
unheard of. Each pupil “ciphered” for 
himself and crowded up with the others to 
his instructor’s desk to have his “answer” 
approved, to have a new “sum set,” or to 
be admonished, as the case might be, for 
inability to “follow the rule.” 

Of recent years it may be said that a 
popular knowledge of arithmetic is greater 
in those sections of North America where 
public schools have reached their highest 
efficiency than in any other part of the 
world; but our contribution has been made 
to methods of instruction and to business 
methods. In its theory we follow the Hin¬ 
du arithmetic practically unchanged. 

The earliest mathematical notions of 
children and of savages are geometrical 
and physical rather than numerical. Dim 
graspings of space, distance, time, and 
mass precede the ability to make a distinc¬ 
tion between one and more than one. 
Even with some command of number the 
primitive mind clings to other modes of 
expression. Children speak of a great 
distance by saying “a 1-o-n-g way off,” the 
prolongation of long being proportionate 
to the fancied distance. The Coeur d’Al¬ 
ene Indians indicate the proximity or re¬ 
moteness of a lake or a river, by pronounc¬ 
ing the word “syah” with a peculiar up¬ 
ward prolongation of the first syllable so 
expressive that, to one who understands 
the customs of the mountains, they convey 
an accurate idea of whether the lake is an 
hour, or a day, or a week’s journey dis¬ 
tant. 


ARITHMETIC 


Yet we must believe that counting is 
nearly as old as speech. Travelers have 
found no tribes so low in the scale of 
intelligence as to have no numerals. Even 
domestic animals are thought to have some 
idea of number. Farmers have a theory 
that crows can count as far as three. This 
is only a theory, however, based on a tra¬ 
dition that if a party of hunters enter a 
cornfield singly or in a group to lie in 
ambush for the black robbers, the crows 
will not come near until three men have 
gone away. 

Each language and district has its series 
of numerals, but nearly all are based on 
five or some multiple of five. The inhabi¬ 
tants of New South Wales have but four 
numerical words in their vocabulary—a 
word each for one, two, and three, and an 
additional word for an indefinite number, 
having some such signification as many or 
plenty. To express five they display the 
fingers of one hand, and for ten the fin¬ 
gers of both hands. To express a greater 
number, which we may believe is seldom 
necessary, the fingers of an additional per¬ 
son are brought into use. In many abo¬ 
riginal dialects, the word for five is also 
the word for hand, while te?i is equivalent 
to two hands. Going a step further, cer¬ 
tain South American tribes call the toes 
into requisition. Ten is expressed by a 
word meaning all the fingers; twenty, by 
all the fingers and toes. The term for for¬ 
ty is fingers and toes of two men. Other 
South American numerals with their sig¬ 
nificance are: five, the hand finished; six, 
one of the other hand; ten, two hands fin¬ 
ished ; eleven, foot one; twelve, foot two, 
etc. The Caribbean words for ten and 
twenty are quite poetic, signifying all the 
children of the hands and all the children 
of the hands and feet. 

In the Zulu language the word for five 
is finish hand; for six, taking the thumb; 
for seven, pointer; for eight, keep back 
two fingers; for nine, keep back one fin¬ 
ger; while at the word for ten the open 
hands are clapped together. If the stu¬ 
dent will begin at the little finger of the 
left hand and count to the left thumb, 
then to the right thumb and right forefin¬ 
ger, he will see why they are so named. 


The Eskimo expression for twenty is 
man, for forty two men. Illustrations may 
be given without number to show that 
counting is based usually on the fingers 
and toes. 

The Aztec numeral system is interesting 
not only in its formation but also for its 
system of pictorial representation. A 
small banner or flag denoted twenty; if 
divided into corner sections by a vertical 
and by a horizontal line passing through 
the center, and one of the sections was 
colored, the flag indicated five; if two sec¬ 
tions were colored, ten; if three, fifteen. 
Numbers below five were denoted by as 
many dots. Twenty 20’s or 400 were in¬ 
dicated by a feather or quill, the hollow 
stock of which was commonly used to con¬ 
tain gold dust. Twenty 400’s or 8,000 
were denoted by a treasure sack or purse. 
Thus 12,038 in our system would have 
been denoted in the Aztec system by a 
running picture of one sack, ten quills, one 
full flag, one flag three-fourths colored, 
and three dots. 

The Egyptian hieroglyphic system is 
like the Aztec in principle, differing only 
in symbols and in scale. One is a straight 
vertical stroke representing a staff. The 
next symbol, the significance of which is 
not known, denotes ten and resembles an 
inverted U or a croquet wicket. The third 
symbol denotes 100 and resembles the spi¬ 
ral line to be had by slicing a flat snail 
shell. One thousand is denoted by an ob¬ 
ject which for want of a better word we 
shall call an image. Ten thousand is de¬ 
noted by a pointing forefinger; 100,000 
is denoted by a fish; 1,000,000 by a man 
holding up both hands in utter amazement, 
and 10,000,000 is represented by a circle 
resting on a line, possibly suggestive of the 
universe or the uttermost bounds of knowl¬ 
edge. The scale is uniformly ten. Thus 
to write 1,200,042 in the Egyptian system 
we represent one man in amazement, two 
fishes, four wickets, and two vertical staves. 

In the last two systems we have ex¬ 
amined, and the list may be extended in¬ 
definitely, we may notice: 

1. There is a distinct symbol for each 
order. In the Aztec system we have dots, 
flags, quills, and sacks for ones, twenties, 


ARITHMETIC 


four hundreds, and eight thousands. In 
the Egyptian system we have a peculiar 
and unmistakable sign for ones, another 
for tens, another for hundreds, and so on. 
The sign for one order can never be used 
for another order. The sign for two tens 
cannot be used for two hundreds. We 
must use wickets for tens and spirals for 
hundreds. 

2. The value of a symbol is the same 
wherever it is placed. A flag, a dot, two 
quills, three dots, and a sack would signi¬ 
fy the same number as a sack, two quills, 
a flag, and four dots. The value of the 
number is to be found by adding the values 
of the various signs regardless of their po¬ 
sition. 

3. Repeating a symbol repeats its val¬ 
ue. To express the value of any number 
of flags less than enough to make a quill, 
it is necessary to repeat the symbol flag. 

It is clearly evident that systems of 
counting arose from using the fingers and 
toes as counters. As to the origin of high¬ 
er orders we have the germ in the very 
natural step of setting aside some object 
as a counter every time the tale of fingers 
or of fingers and toes was completed. 
Certain African tribes set aside a pebble 
for each five, the Aztecs evidently set aside 
a counter for each twenty. The inhabit¬ 
ants of some of the islands of the South 
Pacific count with nuts and cocoanut 
stalks, laying down a small stalk for each 
ten and a large stalk for each hundred, 
that is, for ten small stalks. Two large 
stalks, four small stalks, and six nuts 
would therefore signify tivo hundred forty 
six. The tens and hundreds of our nu¬ 
meral system originated, beyond a doubt, 
in some such primitive device. Instead of 
saying one big stalk, little stalk, we say one 
hundred ten, with this difference, that we 
forgot centuries ago what our words origi¬ 
nally meant. Crude as four big stalks, 
three nuts may sound, and crude as it 
might seem to express 403 in South Sea 
symbols, our system has but three essen¬ 
tial improvements over that of the Aztec, 
the Egyptian, and the South Sea Islander: 

1. The Hindu hit upon the plan of 
representing the higher orders (tens, hun¬ 
dreds, thousands,) by the same characters 


used to denote the ones. In the primitive 
systems we have examined, as that of the 
Egyptians, it made no difference whether 
we drew four wickets and three staves or 
three staves and four wickets. In either 
case the sum of the symbols is to be taken 
and it is immaterial which stand first; but 
in the Hindu system place is made essen¬ 
tial. There is a difference between 43 
and 34. The first place is reserved for 
ones, that is for numbers from 1 to 9. The 
place on the left of ones is reserved for 
tens, and the third place, the second to 
the left of ones, is reserved for hundreds, 
etc. A symbol for four may be made to 
stand for four tens or for four hundreds 
by the simple device of putting it in the 
second place or the third place as may be 
desired. In this way it becomes unneces¬ 
sary to retain separate symbols for tens, 
hundreds, etc., and this cumbersome feat¬ 
ure of the aboriginal systems falls off. So 
important is the feature of position or 
place that the learned Hindu regarded it 
as a direct revelation from heaven. 

2. Another step in advance is that of 
using distinct characters for each number 
less than ten. Instead of repeating dots, 
staves, or nuts, or indeed counters of any 
kind, the Hindus made a set of characters 
ranging from 1 to 9, from which our own 
have been derived. 

3. The Hindus also hit upon the idea 
of using a character without value, a mere 
space filler, to occupy places not needed 
by the symbols of the number. Thus in 
writing 240, they used a cipher, 0, to fill 
the first place and throw the numeral 4 
into the second place where it must be 
to stand for four tens. Otherwise the 
number would read twenty-four. This de¬ 
vice of a cipher, in itself of no value, 
obviates the necessity of using ruled col¬ 
umns. 

The Roman method of notation, by 
means of the letters I, V, X, L, C, D, and 
M, now seldom employed except for pag¬ 
ing or sectioning, was at one time the sole 
reliance of European merchants and math¬ 
ematicians. As late as the middle of the 
sixteenth century English shopkeepers 
kept their books and rendered their ac¬ 
counts in cumbrous Roman numerals. The 


ARIUS—ARIZONA 


Roman numerals, however, were used only 
to record results. Computations were made 
with the aid of counters or with a numeral 
frame called an abacus. 

The names of our first ten numbers have 
lost their original meaning. A certain Afri¬ 
can tribe says bird’s foot for four, referring 
of course to the toes, three forward and 
one rear, on the foot of a bird. Doubtless 
our one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, 
eight, nine, and ten, had some such mean¬ 
ing before they were used for numerals, 
but, however that may be, all trace of 
their original force has disappeared. For 
all that we now know of their history, six, 
seven, and eight might as well have been 
used in the reverse order. Eleven and 
twelve are from old Gothic forms anlif 
and twalif, in which we recognize the Scot¬ 
tish ane and twa prefixed to lif which is 
thought to signify ten. Thirteen, fourteen, 
fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and 
nineteen are evidently three-ten, four-ten, 
etc. Twenty is twain-tens. Thirty is 
three-tens. Hundred is hund-rede, in 
which rede means a number or account. 
Thousand has now no other significance. 
Million is from the Latin word mille, sig¬ 
nifying thousand, and means a great thou¬ 
sand. Billion and trillion are from bi 
and million and tri and million, signifying 
the second and third powers of a million, 
from which, however, we have diverted 
them. Naught comes from ne and aught, 
meaning not aught, not anything, nothing. 

The characters used to express numbers 
are nine digits or significant figures, a ci¬ 
pher, and a decimal point: 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, . 

The first three digits are supposed to be 
modifications of one, two, and three pen¬ 
cil strokes. Of the first it is unnecessary 
to speak. An approximate 2 may be 
formed by making two short horizontal 
strokes, carrying the pencil on the paper 
from the right end of the first stroke to 
the left end of the second so as to form 
a Z. A three may have developed, it 
is thought, from three horizontal strokes, 
the pencil being carried on the paper as 
before. An examination of old script 
forms lends plausibility to this theory. 
4 to 9 inclusive are said to be modi¬ 


fications of the initial letters of the old 
Indo-Bactrian names of the numbers they 
represent. 0 is considered a Brahminic 
symbol. It may be called zero, cipher, or 
naught, but never aught. The decimal 
point is a clerical device of modern origin, 
due to Simon Stevin, the Belgian inventor 
of decimals.. 

Nothing could be more fatal to a schol¬ 
arly apprehension of our present system 
of arithmetic than to take the features of 
the system for granted, as though they 
were inherent in the principles of civiliza¬ 
tion and could not be otherwise. We have 
been so long accustomed to say that 
3X4=12 that the expression 3X4 
= 22 seems ridiculous; yet if the student 
will follow patiently he will see not 
indeed that the product of 3 and 4 is ever 
other than a dozen, but that a dozen may 
be written 22 quite as reasonably as it 
may be written 12. All depends on our 
understanding of the meaning which at¬ 
taches to the numerals in their various 
positions. If our system w r ere based on 
five and its powers, instead of on ten and 
the powers of ten, that is if we set aside 
a counter for each five instead of one for 
each ten, we should need but four digits. 
Seven would be written as a five and two 
ones, thus, 12. A dozen would be writ¬ 
ten as two fives and two ones, or 22. If 
4,312 be a number written on the scale of 
five, it is composed of 4 one-hundred-twen¬ 
ty-fives, 3 twenty-fives, 1 five, and 2 ones. 
On the same supposition 20.2 is composed 
of 2 fives and 2 fifths. Such a svstem 
would be called a quinary instead of a 
decimal system. 

Ar'ius. See Arianism. 

Arizona, one of the new southwestern 
states. It is situated on the Mexican Dor- 
der, between New Mexico and California. 
In shape it approaches a rectangle. Land 
area, 113,020 square miles. The name is 
Spanish, meaning arid zone. There are 
but 100 square miles of water in Arizona. 
The northern part of Arizona is a vast 
plateau, 45,000 square miles in extent and 
averaging about 7,000 feet above sea level. 
It carries numerous lava ridges and vol¬ 
canic peaks of which Mt. Humphreys, near 
Flagstaff, reaches a height of 12,794 feet, 


ARIZONA 


being the highest point in the state. The 
edges of the plateau are cut by deep 
canyons and through it extends the Grand 
Canyon of the Colorado. Farther south 
the surface drops off to a region of par¬ 
allel mountain ranges trending northwest¬ 
ward from the Sierra Madre of Mexico. 
This is the chief mineral belt of the state.. 
To the south and west of the mountain 
region lies the desert section, crossed by 
low ranges of mountains separated by 
broad, arid plains of low elevation. The 
entire state is drained by the Colorado into 
the Gulf of California. All the streams 
are subject to great fluctuations in volume 
and many are dry during a large portion 
of the year. The upper portions of the 
Salt, Gila, Verde, and Little Colorado 
Rivers contain constant flows of more or 
less volume during the entire year. The 
annual rainfall varies from five inches in 
the desert region to twenty-five or more 
along the edge of the plateau. There are 
two rainy seasons. The summer rains ex¬ 
tend through July, August, and Septem¬ 
ber. The winter rains occur at intervals 
from November to March and are the 
chief source of water for irrigation. April, 
May, and June are the driest months. The 
average temperature of the desert region 
is seventy degrees; of the plateau, fifty 
degrees. Though the temperature occa¬ 
sionally rises to 120 degrees in the desert 
section, the sensible temperature is greatly 
reduced by the absence of humidity. Sun¬ 
strokes are practically unknown. The sum¬ 
mer climate of the plateau is delightful as 
is also the winter climate of the lower val¬ 
leys. The dryness of the atmosphere ren¬ 
ders the region a desirable one for invalids. 
The sunshine averages 80 per cent of the 
possible amount. 

Products. In the plateau and moun¬ 
tain regions, native grasses support large 
numbers of sheep, cattle, and goats. From 
the Grand Canyon to the White Moun¬ 
tains extends one of the largest bodies of 
virgin pine timber in the United States. 
The mills of Flagstaff and Williams have 
a combined capacity of over 300,000 feet 
of lumber daily. The native growth of the 
desert plains consists largely of sage brush, 
creosote bush, mesquite, yucca, and cactus, 


with cottonwood along the streams, but 
the desert soil is fertile and responds to 
irrigation with abundant crops. It is es¬ 
timated that about-one-fourteenth of the 
state may ultimately be brought under in¬ 
tensive cultivation by means of irrigation. 
In 1920 there were 467,349 acres under 
irrigation. The largest irrigated region is 
in Yuma County, most of the water being 
supplied from Laguna Dam reservoir. 
The next largest area is in Salt River val¬ 
ley. The development of this region fol¬ 
lowed the completion of the Roosevelt 
Dam. It was formerly an important dairy 
region but raising long staple cotton has 
become the chief industry. 

In 1920, 120,000 acres were planted to 
cotton and the state crop amounted to 
110,000 bales. The soil is fertile and 
semi-tropical fruits—lemons, oranges, apri¬ 
cots, raisins, grapes, figs and almonds— 
thrive in irrigated regions. Alfalfa is also 
extensively grown and raising live stock 
is a profitable branch of agriculture. 
Wheat and barley are grown and the beet 
sugar industry is well established. 

Minerals. Arizona is the leading state 
in the production of copper, and one of the 
foremost states in the Union in mineral 
wealth. Gold and silver are produced in 
paying quantities. The output of gold in 
1920 was 380,034 ounces and that of sil¬ 
ver, 6,098,251 ounces. A part of the gold 
and silver is obtained in the reduction of 
low grade copper ore but some gold and 
silver mines are worked for these metals 
alone. Lead, coal, iron, tin, nickel, plat¬ 
inum, mercury, borax, salt and sulphur are 
found. 

A marvelous petrified forest in Navajo 
County near Holbrook, attracts many vis¬ 
itors. Tree trunks a yard in diameter have 
been turned into stone and have broken 
into cylindrical blocks of exquisite color¬ 
ing. Fine specimens of opals, garnets, 
chalcedony, sapphire and turquoise are 
found. Onyx is quarried and used for 
table tops and interior decorations. 

Transportation and Manufactures. 
Arizona is crossed from east to west by the 
Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe and 
Southern Pacific railways. A branch line 
extending from Ash Fork on the Santa Fe 


ARIZONA 


through Prescott and Phoenix connects 
these systems. Each system has other 
branch lines extending to the more settled 
portions of the state, and a branch of the 
Santa Fe extends from Williams to Grand 
Canyon National Park. 

The chief manufacturing industries are 
those related to lumber, to mining and to 
repairing locomotives and railway cars. 

Population. In 1920 the population 
was 334,162. The increase during the 
decade 1910-1920 was 129,808 or 63 per 
cent. The number of inhabitants to the 
square mile in 1920 was 2.9 and the rural 
population constituted 64.8 per cent of 
the whole. The most populous cities are 
Phoenix, 29,053 ; Tucson, 20,292 ; Doug¬ 
las, 9,916; Bisbee, 7,205 ; Globe, 7,044; 
Miami, 6,689; Prescott, 5,010. 

Education. A thorough system of pub¬ 
lic schools is maintained and the percent¬ 
age of average attendance is higher than 
in some of the more densely populated 
states. The University of Arizona was 
opened at Tucson in 1901. In 1920 the 
enrollment was approximately 900. In 
1919 the University became a member of 
the Association of American Colleges. 
The Agricultural Experiment Station, the 
Arizona bureau of mines, the state pure 
food laboratory and the state museum are 
located on the University campus. Effici¬ 
ent normal schools are located at Flagstaff 
and Holbrook, and a state school for the 
deaf is affiliated with the University. 

Government. The governor, secretary 
of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney-gen¬ 
eral and superintendent of public instruc¬ 
tion are elected. The term of office is two 
years. The treasurer is not eligible for re- 
election. The legislature consists of a sen¬ 
ate and a house of representatives. The in¬ 
itiative, referendum and recall are in force. 

History. Arizona was visited by the 
Spaniards in 1539. In the following year, 
Coronado led an expedition to the settle¬ 
ments of the Hopis and Zunia. He found 
the remains of ancient cities, aqueducts, 
and temples, indicating that the region 
was at one time the home of some pre¬ 
historic race, familiar, like the Aztecs, with 
the art of building. Aztec legends locate 
the “Seven Cities of Cibola” here. In 


1560 Tucson was founded by the Span¬ 
iards. Citizens assert that it is an older 
town than St. Augustine, Florida. The 
region was acquired from Mexico by treaty 
in 1848-. A strip south of the Gila formed, 
however, a part of the Gadsden Purchase, 
made in 1853. 

Arizona became a territory in 1863, and 
a state February 14, 1912. Although in 
the early days settlement was retarded by 
the depredations of the Apaches and other 
Indian tribes, these troubles have long 
since ceased to interfere with progress. 
Remote sections are being developed by 
branch railways and the advent of the 
automobile has led to the construction of 
an efficient system of state highways. 

Statistics. The following are the lat¬ 
est reliable statistics to be had: 


Land area, square miles . 113,664 

Water area, square miles . 146 

Forest area, acres . 5,350,000 

Irrigated area, acres. 467,565 

Population (1920) . 334,162 

White . 291,449 

Negro . 8,005 

Indian . 32,989 

Foreign born . 78,099 

Chief cities: 

Phoenix . 29,053 

Tuscon . 20,292 

Bisbee . 9,205 

Number of counties . 14 

Members of state senate . 19 

Members of house of representatives 35 

Salary of Governor .$ 6,500 

Representatives in Congress . 3 

Assessed valuation of property... .$884,455,682 

Bonded indebtedness .$ 2,991,925 

Improved land, acres . 712,803 

Corn, bushels . 1,015,000 

Wheat, bushels . 840,000 

Oats, bushels . 630,000 

Hay, tons . 450,000 

Potatoes, bushels . 460,000 

Barley . 928,000 

Domestic Animals: 

Horses . 120,000 

Mules . 12,000 

Milk cows . 45,000 

Other cattle . 1,110,000 

Sheep . 1,200,000 

Swine . 40,000 

Manufacturing establishments .... 480 

Capital invested .$101,486,070 

Operatives . 9,931 

Raw material used .$ 92,645,437 

Output of manufactures .$120,769,112 

Silver output, ounces . 6,098,251 

Gold output, ounces . 380,034 

Copper output, tons . 279,617 

Miles of railway . 2,477 








































ARK—ARKANSAS 


Ark, a chest, coffer, or large vessel. 
For an account of the ark constructed by 
Noah, which saved himself and family 
from the deluge and landed them at Mt. 
Ararat, the reader is referred to the 
Biblical account contained in the sixth 
chapter of Genesis. The ark of the cove¬ 
nant was a sacred chest of acacia wood, 
overlaid with gold, which was kept in the 
holiest place of the Jewish tabernacle, and 
when completed of the temple. It con¬ 
tained the tables of stone on which were 
written the ten commandments. 

Arkansas, ar-kan-saw', one of the south 
central states. “The Bear State.” Land 
area, 53,045 square miles. Arkansas lies 
on the west bank of the Mississippi be¬ 
tween Missouri and Louisiana. Roughly 
speaking, the state may be divided into 
three regions. These are the lowlands 
along the Mississippi and other rivers; the 
Ozark mountain region of the northwest, 
the higher peaks of which rise to an alti¬ 
tude of 2,800 feet; and the hill country 
between the two. The waters of the state 
either flow into the Mississippi directly 
through the White, the St. Francis, and 
the Arkansas; or indirectly through the 
Ouachita (wash-i-ta) and other tributaries 
of the Red River which winds through 
the southwestern corner. The Mississippi 
and Arkansas are navigable for deep 
water steamers throughout the state. The 
other rivers named are not so deep. 

Agriculture. Agriculture is the lead¬ 
ing industry. Four varieties of soil are 
recognized—the sandy soil of the Ozark, 
the clay loams of the hill country, the 
gumbo of the Red River valley, and the 
black soil of the eastern low lands. In 
1920 the farm area was over 17,566,000 
acres of which 9,239,000 acres was im¬ 
proved land. Cotton and tobacco are 
grown in the southern part of the state. 
Cotton is the chief crop with an annual 
yield of about 1,000,000 bales. Rice is 
grown on the low lands and in 1921 
Arkansas ranked second among the rice 
producing states. 

In the northern part of the state corn, 
wheat, oats, potatoes, hay and forage crops 
are grown. The northwestern section is 
widely known for its fruits, especially 


apples and peaches. The strawberry crop 
is valued at about $1,000,000 a year. Rais¬ 
ing live stock is an important branch of 
agriculture. The annual wool clip is about 
450,000 pounds. 

Minerals. The chief mineral regions 
are in the Ozarks and the southern part of 
the state. Bituminous coal, salt, ochre, 
phosphates, zinc, marble, sand for glass, 
lime, sandstone, petroleum, natural gas, 
bauxite, manganese, grindstones and whet¬ 
stones, the chalk for Portland cement are 
found. The oil stones and whetstones 
from the Ouachita Valley are considered 
the finest in the world. In 1920 platinum 
was discovered near Batesville. Previous 
to 1915 the production of natural gas was 
small. In that year a strong well was 
opened in Crawford County. In 1920 the 
output of the wells near Fort Smith was 
200,000,000 feet. Oil was discovered in 
the El Dorado region in 1921, and by 
August the production was over 1,000,000 
barrels a month. Clay found in Saline 
County is used in the manufacture of high 
grade pottery. Its mineral waters have 
given the state an international reputation. 
See Hot Springs. 

Manufactures. Nearly three-fourths 
of the state is covered with forests of 
southern pine, white oak, hickory, pecan, 
ash, elm, black walnut, locust, pawpaw, 
hornbeam, gum, sycamore, red oak, maple, 
cottonwood, red cedar and cypress. The 
manufacture of lumber and lumber prod¬ 
ucts takes first place, followed by the 
manufacture of cottonseed products. The 
annual timber cut is about five billion feet, 
about one-half of which is used for lumber. 
Some of the largest sawnnills in the world 
are found in the southeastern part of the 
state near the pine forests. 

Transportation. River transportation 
is still important, especially in connection 
with foreign trade. Exports are forwarded 
to New r Orleans by water where they are 
transferred to ocean-going ships. In 1920 
there were 5,220 miles of steam railways 
and over 150 miles of electric railways. 
The state is rapidly improving its high¬ 
ways and approximately 60,000 automo¬ 
biles and trucks are licensed annually. 
Population. The census of 1920 re- 


ARKWRIGHT 


turned a population of 1,752,204. The in¬ 
crease for the decade 1910-1920 was 
177,755 or 11.3 per cent. 1,265,782 or 
72 per cent were whites and 472,220 or 27 
per cent were Negroes. Over five-sixths of 
the population is rural. The cities having 
over 5,000 inhabitants are Little Rock, 
65,142 ; Fort Smith, 28,870; Pine Bluff’ 
19,280; Hot Springs, 11,695 ; Jonesboro, 
9,384; Texarkana, 8,257 ; Paragould, 
6,306; Van Buren, 5,224; Mirianna, 
5,074; Blytheville, 6,414; Fayetteville, 
5,332 ; Helena, 9,112 ; West Helena, 6,226. 

Education. The large rural popula¬ 
tion makes the problem of education dif¬ 
ficult. In 1920 the school population num¬ 
bered 676,000. Over two-thirds of these 
were in regular attendance upon public 
and high schools. The school fund is 
increasing with the development of the 
state’s resources. The University of 
Arkansas, the State Normal and four agri¬ 
cultural high schools are supported by a 
special state tax. The normal schools, 
academies and colleges are in private hands. 
The Deaf Mute Institute and School for 
the Blind are at Little Rock. 

Government. The present constitution 
was adopted in 1874. The state officers 
are elected for two years. They are the 
governor, secretary of state, treasurer, fire 
marshal and insurance commissioner, at¬ 
torney-general, superintendent of educa¬ 
tion, commissioner of agriculture and com¬ 
missioner of public lands. The legislature 
consists of two houses, a senate, members 
of which are elected for four years, and a 
house of representatives, elected for two 
years. Sessions are limited to sixty days, 
unless two-thirds of each house vote to 
extend the time. Suffrage is restricted to 
those who have resided in the state for one 
year and in the county six months and who 
have paid a poll tax. 

History. De Soto and his companions 
were perhaps the first whites to enter the 
state. Some authorities hold that De Soto’s 
followers buried him in the Arkansas 
River. The first settlers were French. 
Arkansas was a part of the Louisiana Pur¬ 
chase. It formed a part of the territories 
of Louisiana, 1803, and Missouri, 1812, 
respectively. It was erected into a sepa¬ 


rate territory in 1819, with a population, 
including Indians, of about 10,000. The 
first newspaper, the Arkansas Gazette, was 
established the same year at Arkansas Port. 
June 15, 1836, Arkansas was admitted as 
a slave state. In 1860 the hill country 
was Union in sentiment, the lowlands were 
in favor of secession and carried their 
point, May, 1861. The state was read¬ 
mitted in 1868. Under a constitutional 
amendment of 1893, voters must have lived 
in the state a year and pay a poll tax. 

Statistics. The following are the most 
reliable available statistics: 


Land area, square miles . 52,525 

Water area, square miles . 810 

Forest area, acres . 22,000,000 

Population (1920) . 1,752,204 

White .. 1,279,984 

Negro . 472,220 • 

Chief cities: 

Little Rock . 65,030 

Fort Smith . 28,870 

Pine Bluff . 19,280 

Hot Springs . 11,695 

Number of counties . 75 

Members of state senate . 35 

Members of house of representatives 100 

Salary of Governor .$ 4,000 

Representatives in Congress . 7 

Assessed valuation of property_$575,121,647 

Bonded indebtedness .$ 2,266,410 

Farm area, acres . 17,566,353 

Improved land, acres . 9,238,893 

Corn, bushels . 60,148,000 

Wheat, bushels . 958,000 

Peanuts, bushels . 308,676 

Cotton, bales (500 lb.) . 860,000 

Domestic Animals: 

Horses . 258,000 

Mules . 327,000 

Milk cows . 429,000 

Other cattle . 643,000 

Sheep . 191,000 

Swine _. 1,459,000 

Manufacturing establishments . 3,123 

Capital invested .$138,817,974 

Raw material used .$102,812,977 

Operatives . 49,954 

Output of manufactures .$200,312,858 

Miles of railway . 5,220 

Pupils enrolled in public schools .. 461,591 

Arkwright, Richard (1732-1792) an 
English inventor, a native of Lancashire. 

Arkwright, the son of a workingman, after 
receiving a little schooling, took up the 

trade of a barber, and made a little addi¬ 
tional money by a method of his own for 
dyeing hair. Arkwright lived in a weav¬ 
ing country, and having an inventive na¬ 
ture, he hit upon a device for producing 


































ARMADA 


fine thread. An acquaintance had already 
invented machinery for twisting cotton 
thread, but it was still too coarse for the 
threads of warp that run lengthwise of a 
web. Arkwright caught an idea from see¬ 
ing red hot bars of iron pressed into thin 
sheets by running between successive pairs 
of rollers, each pair set closer than the 
preceding pair. He conceived the simple 
idea that if the amount of cotton going to 
make an ordinary thread be fed between a 
pair of slow going rollers and be caught by 
a second pair of rollers going at ten times 
the speed, the cotton would be strung out 
to make a thread of one-tenth the weight. 
By this simple device of feeding through 
two pairs of rollers, the second pair geared 
at a high speed, he found that he could 
produce cotton thread of uniform size and, 
within reasonable limits, of any weight de¬ 
sired. We cannot go into the particulars 
of opposition from spinners who thought 
their occupation and wages gone; of 
wealthy manufacturers who dreaded com¬ 
petition and expense of new machinery. 
Arkwright’s patents were fought from 
court to court, his mills were burned by in¬ 
furiated workmen, but toward the end he 
triumphed over ignorance, custom, and 
wealth. He built and organized a fac¬ 
tory recognized as the type of today, and, 
what is of less importance, he became 
wealthy, held office, and was knighted by 
his sovereign. 

Armada, ar-ma'da, a general Spanish 
term meaning a large naval force. The 
fleet known as the Spanish Armada was 
fitted out by Philip II, king of Spain, in 
1588. Philip aimed at one despotic world- 
empire. Under Queen Elizabeth, little Eng¬ 
land (with only 4,000,000 of people at 
that time) entered into a daring rivalry 
with this dangerous might. English mon¬ 
ey and thousands of English volunteers, 
like Sir Philip Sidney, helped to keep alive 
the gallant rebellion of the Dutch against 
Spain; while adventurers, like Drake 
and Raleigh and Grenville, ravished Span¬ 
ish treasure on the seas and on the coasts 
of America, even challenging the Spanish 
monopoly of the Pacific. All this was be¬ 
fore war had been declared. Finally 
Philip determined to concentrate his tre¬ 


mendous resources for the conquest of the 
hornet’s nest, to put an end to these an¬ 
noyances. For years preparations went 
on on a vast scale in many ports. The 
Spanish power included not only Spain 
and Portugal, but also Burgundy, the 
Netherlands, most of Italy, practically all 
America, North and South, and the rich 
“Spice Islands” of the East Indies. The 
German states, under the lead of Austria, 
were held in close alliance. Pope Sixtus 
V gave England to the Spanish crown. 

In 1588 the “Invincible Armada” was 
dispatched to subdue the country and take 
possession. Misfortune seemed to over¬ 
take it from the start. The fleet was 
scarce out of port when it was scattered 
by a storm and was obliged to put back 
to refit. When, finally, it advanced up the 
English Channel in the shape of a half 
moon, the fleets seemed unequal. The Eng¬ 
lish ships were for the most part merchant 
vessels transformed into a navy. The 
Spanish men-of-war were huge of bulk 
and towered above the English ships. 
The English fleet, however, was the more 
wieldy, and the English were better marks¬ 
men. The British seamen went into the 
fight right gallantly. Lord Howard, the 
British naval commander, out-generaled, 
out-shot, out-sailed, and out-fought the 
enemy, taking their treasure ship, sinking 
others, and completing the demoralization 
of the Spanish by sending fireships among 
them as they lay becalmed. The grap¬ 
pling, boarding, and slaughter on bloody 
decks is described in the annals of naval 
warfare as appalling. The Spaniards 
fought bravely, for the best blood of Spain 
was there, striking a blow for honor, for 
the glory of native land, and for the 
mother church; but the invader is ever at 
a disadvantage, and they were outmatched 
by the British seamen. The English 
fought for home and fireside and won the 
day. At length the Spanish commander 
resolved to withdraw. He attempted to 
take his fleet home by way of the North 
Sea and around the north and west of the 
British Isles, but was caught in a terrific 
hurricane. He lost many of his ships and 
men on the rocky coasts of Norway, Scot¬ 
land, and Ireland, and many ships found- 


ARMADILLO—ARMENIA 


ered at sea. Of 131 ships, 19,000 marines, 
and 8,000 sailors that went forth from 
Spain only 50 ships and a scant half of the 
men ever returned. The flower and chiv¬ 
alry of Spain were represented in the ex¬ 
pedition, for it was expected to rival that 
of William the Norman, who wrested 
England from Harold in 1066. The ad¬ 
venturous youth of Spain, of the same sort 
of blood that ran in the veins of De Soto, 
Pizarro, Cortez, and Narvaeth, desired to 
be on hand to divide up the country. 
Lamentations for dead sons were heard 
all over the land. Spain never recovered 
from the blow, or attempted seriously to 
contest further the supremacy of the sea. 

The number of men and ships engaged 
in this sea fight may seem small compared 
with modern naval engagements, but the 
conflict was one of the truly decisive bat¬ 
tles of the world. The English victory 
saved free institutions and Protestantism 
in Europe. It paved the way for English 
colonization in North America. Had the 
battle gone otherwise, the Spanish type of 
civilization, which, as we see, got a foot¬ 
hold in Mexico and the southwest, might 
have prevailed in North America. 

An account of the battle may be found 
in Charles Kingsley’s Westward Ho. 

Armadillo, an American mammal of 
the sloth family, noted for its defensive 
armor. There are at least four species, 
variously distributed from Texas to Ar¬ 
gentina. The largest is three feet in 
length not counting the tail; the smallest 
is only five or Ax inches long. All arma¬ 
dillos are armed with strong claws, and 
dig rapidly, being able to escape pursuit 
by burying themselves in the ground be¬ 
fore an ordinary pursuer can overtake 
them. Ordinarily the armadillo rests on 
the ground like a tortoise. When alarmed 
it raises itself up on the very tips of its 
long claws and scuttles about quite active¬ 
ly for a short time. The different species 
are variously covered with scales not un¬ 
like those of an alligator, and some species 
have the power of rolling themselves up 
into balls, so as to present a defensive sur¬ 
face at every point. Like the anteater, 
the armadillo lives chiefly on insects, 
worms, snails, lizards, fruits, and roots. 


The armadillo is related to the anteater, 
but its tongue cannot be protruded. The 
natives of South America eat the arma¬ 
dillo, but its flesh is offensive to the ordi¬ 
nary palate. Armadillo steaks are served 
in the restaurants of Buenos Ayres. Some 
travelers who affect to like them claim 
that they taste like spring chicken. See 
Anteater ; Sloth. 

Armenia, Republic of, politically, con¬ 
nected by agreements with the Russian 
Soviet republic; area 15,240 square miles; 
population in 1920, 1,214,391. It was 
formerly a factor in the trade between 
the East and West, but it has been over¬ 
run for centuries by contending armies. 
Before the advent of the Great War, Ar¬ 
menia was divided among Russia, Turkey, 
and Persia. Originally a great nation, 
whose monarch a century before Christ 
was the mightiest in Asia, Armenia num¬ 
bered 30,000,000 people. She was the first 
country in the world to adopt Christianity 
as a state religion. Almost immediately 
this provoked the hostility of Persia, and 
later of Russia and Turkey, who desired 
to establish their various faiths and absorb 
the Armenian Church. Armenia firmly re¬ 
sisted and declared: “From this faith, no 
force can move us. ... We shall accept no 
God in place of Christ.” In 1375, after 
more than 1,000 years of struggle, the last 
vestige of Armenian independence passed 
away. Magnificent ruins speak of former 
wealth and power but the Armenians be¬ 
came a distressed people oppressed both on 
account of race and religion. 

In race they are essentially a European 
people and those of today bear a resem¬ 
blance to the inhabitants of modern Greece. 
They are naturally gifted, thrifty, and of 
fine parts. “We find them,” says a recent 
commentator, “as bankers, merchants, shop¬ 
keepers, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, 
teachers, engineers, and officials all over 
the Caucasus and even in European Rus¬ 
sia.” The Turks were astute enough, de¬ 
spite their persecutions and hate, to ap¬ 
point Armenians to positions of the highest 
honor in directing Turkish schools, govern¬ 
ment, etc. The fine stuffs so admired in 
Europe as Turkish products are really Ar¬ 
menian manufactured. 


ARMENIUS—ARMOR 


Armenia is fertile and produced cotton, 
grain, grapes, and tobacco, but the masses 
lived in squalid poverty under the grasp¬ 
ing hand of relentless raiders and tax- 
gatherers. Early in August, 1914, Turkey 
sought to induce the Armenians to remain 
neutral and loyal to their respective gov¬ 
ernments. But Russia was reported to have 
verbally offered autonomy to Armenia. 
Hence, thousands deserted Turkey and 
joined their brother volunteers in Russia. 
Thereupon followed the series of unparal¬ 
leled atrocities perpetrated by Turkey. It 
was a war of murder and deportation. 
Whole communities were wiped out—men 
killed, families separated, women and girls 
violated. Children were sold or thrown 
into rivers to escape starvation. About 
three-quarters of a million non-combatants 
perished. 

The close of the war left the Armenians 
in a deplorable condition. In July, 1918, 
the Turks agreed to recognize the “Arme¬ 
nian Independent Republic of Ararat,” but 
in December the Turks surrendered to the 
Allies. The allied troops were withdrawn 
from the country, leaving the Armenians at 
the mercy of the Turks. In 1921 the 
Armenian republic was taken over by the 
Soviet Government and conditions became 
worse. In January, 1922, the remnant of 
120,000 besought the League of Nations 
to transport them beyond the reach of their 
hereditary enemies. The nation has dis¬ 
integrated with little prospect of reuniting. 

Amidst these natural fastnesses, in a country 
of lofty ridges, deep and narrow valleys, nu¬ 
merous and copious streams, and occasional broad 
plains—a country of rich pasture grounds, pro¬ 
ductive orchards, and abundant harvests—this in¬ 
teresting people has maintained itself almost un¬ 
changed from the time of the early Persian kings 
to the present day. Armenia was one of the most 
valuable portions of the Persian empire, fur¬ 
nishing, as it did, besides stone and timber, and 
several most important minerals, an annual sup¬ 
ply of 20,000 excellent horses to the stud of 
the Persian king.—G. Rawlinson, Five Great 
Monarchies. 

Armenius. See Hermann. 

Arminius (1560-1609), a distinguished 
Dutch theologian. Hi? original name 
was Hermanson, but after the Latinizing 
fashion of the day he thought Arminius 
more scholarly. Arminius was a profound 
student, a genial, public-spirited clergy¬ 


man. He was exceedingly tolerant in his 
views, and upheld popular education. In¬ 
terest in Arminius centers in his opposing 
the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination 
with the Arminian doctrine of free will. 
He became professor of theology in the 
University of Leyden. 

Armistice, a military term. The literal 
meaning of the word is a standing still 
or rest of arms. An armistice may be a 
suspension of hostilities for a few hours 
in order to hold a parley or bury the dead; 
or it may be protracted indefinitely with a 
view to the negotiation of peace. During 
an armistice it is a point of military honor 
that neither party shall take steps to ren¬ 
der its position stronger at the close than 
it was at the beginning. At such a time 
it is considered dishonorable to repair forti¬ 
fications, dig trenches, or anything of the 
sort. An armistice may be agreed upon 
oetween two commanders on the field of 
battle, or between two governments. In 
either case, the territory and the length 
of time are specified carefully. 

Armor, defensive covering worn to pro¬ 
tect the person against weapons. The ar¬ 
mor worn by the Greek warriors at the 
siege of Troy consisted of four pieces. 
The helmet was a metal cap, designed to 
protect the head. The cuirass consisted 
of a bronze breastplate and a back piece 
reaching from the neck to the girdle, some¬ 
what comparable to a vest. Tne two 
pieces were laced together at the sides 
with leather thongs. Bronze greaves or 
plates covered the leg to the instep. The 
fourth piece was a round or oval shield 
held in the hand. It is described as made 
of bronze, lined or backed with bull’s 
hide. It was long enough to protect the 
entire body. At the beginning of the Mid¬ 
dle Ages the armor consisted chiefly of 
mail; that is to say, flexible garments 
made of twisted links of steel. The prin¬ 
cipal garment was the hauberk, or mail 
shirt, reaching from the neck to the knees. 
A stiff leather garment was worn under 
this to prevent the links from being driv¬ 
en into the warrior’s body. Mail gloves 
and hose were worn. In its later and com¬ 
plete development the suit of armor was 
composed entirely of sheets of thin steel, 






3 . 


a. Steel cap. 

b. Vizor. 

c. Aventaile. 

d. Throat piece. 

e. Nape guard. 

f. Neck guard. 

g. Breast plate. 

h. Back piece. 

i. Skirt with thigh 

guards 
k. Pauldron. 


l. Rivets. 

m. Guards. 

n. Armlets. 

o. Cubiti&re. 

p. Gauntlets. 

q. Lance rest. 

r. Cuishes. 

s. Knee guard. 

t. Jambes. 

u. Solleret. 

v. Tunic of mail. 



1. Carlovingian man-at-arms. 

3. French warrior, about 1120. 

5 & 6. German armor—time of Maximilian I. 
7. Various patterns of mail.—a. Latticed mail. 

mail. e. Scale mail. 


2. Polish knight, 16th century. 

4. Battle of Ascalon, 1099. 

(Stained glass in St. Denis.) 
b. Ringed mail. c. Chain mail. d. Tortoise 
f. Chain mail. 


ARMOR AND WEAPONS 

































































































ARMOR PLATE—ARMOUR 


ingeniously shaped, hinged, and riveted in 
such a way as to allow the arms and the 
legs to move freely. When the warrior 
donned his suit of armor and lowered the 
visor of his helmet, he was completely en¬ 
cased in metal, and was supposed to be 
proof against sword and spear. A knight 
clad in armor was supposed to be a match 
for any number of common men. A suit 
was so costly, however, that it could be 
owned only by the wealthy, who were thus 
given a great advantage over their fellows. 
A complete suit of armor was so heavy 
that the wearer could not mount his war 
horse without assistance, nor could he, if 
overthrown, rise without help. The devel¬ 
opment of archery, followed by the inven¬ 
tion of gunpowder, which enabled men to 
fight at a distance, and made lightness of 
foot requisite to advantage in battle, ren¬ 
dered armor a useless incumbrance. 

Numerous attempts were made during 
the World War to devise a light, metal 
armor that would protect, at least in part, 
the individual fighting man against rifle 
fire and the bayonet thrust. But, except 
for the light steel helmet—“tin hat,” as 
the soldier quickly named it—no practical 
armor was devised although a steel breast 
plate “was frequently used by the crews of 
German minnenwerfers, and by snipers. 
The steel helmet was introduced into the 
late war by the French after trench war¬ 
fare was well advanced and it was found 
that many soldiers were receiving head 
wounds from pieces of shrapnel and from 
rifle bullets traveling at relatively low 
velocities. A considerable amount of prej¬ 
udice had to be overcome before the sol¬ 
diers would wear the helmets, the British 
and American helmet being slightly heav¬ 
ier, and the German type the heaviest. 

See Helmet. 

Armor Plate, sheets of metal designed 
to protect the hulls of ships against the 
missiles hurled by artillery. Some applica¬ 
tion of the idea seems to have been used 
in the War of 1812. Later in the Crimean 
War, three irou-clads were sent by France 
in 1855 to Alma, a Russian fort in 
the Crimea. Naturally enough, the pro¬ 
jectile force of cannon was increased. 
During our Civil War a plate four and 


one-half inches thick was considered an 
efficient protection. A few years later the 
Krupps produced a rifle throwing a steel 
bolt, fourteen and one-half inches in di¬ 
ameter, that proved itself capable of pierc¬ 
ing two twelve-inch plates separated by 
eleven inches of teak w r ood backed by five 
inches of teak and two one-inch plates,— 
a total protection of twenty-six inches of 
metal and fourteen inches of teak wood. 
It was then admitted that a war ship may 
be strengthened and its most vital parts 
defended, but that it would sink any ship 
to cover it with complete gunproof armor. 
The heaviest steel armor is now made in 
sections about a foot in thickness, nine 
feet in width, and eighteen feet in length. 
The outer surface is hardened. The plates 
are fastened in place by bolts, entering 
the inner surface only. Three and one- 
half per cent of nickel is added to the 
metal to secure toughness. A large battle¬ 
ship carries 8,000,000 pounds or more of 
armor. Modern projectiles will pierce any 
armor now made at a distance of a mile 
and a half or two miles; but the fact that 
a projectile is likely to strike at an angle 
and glance adds to the security of the 
ship. The principal American mills en¬ 
gaged in the manufacture of steel armor 
plate are those located at Pittsburgh and 
South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Also see 
Battleship; Krupp ; Dreadnought; 
N AVY. 

Armour, Philip Danforth (1832-1901), 

an American merchant and philanthropist, 
was born and educated at Stockbridge, 
N. Y. He engaged in the commission 
business in Milwaukee, Wis., and in 1863 
became the head of the pork packing firm 
of Armour, Plankinton and Company in 
the same city. In 1870, the main office 
was transferred to Chicago, and the firm 
reorganized under the name of Armour 
and Company. This packing establish¬ 
ment prospered and still sends exports to 
every civilized country. It also does a 
large business in the refrigerator car ser¬ 
vice and in the storage and handling of 
grain. Mr. Armour was almost as well 
known for his philanthropy as for his 
business acumen. He founded in Chicago 
the Armour Mission and the Armour In- 


ARMOUR INSTITUTE—ARMSTRONG 


stitute of Technology, giving them a total 
original endowment of $2,500,000. 
Armour Institute of Technology, a 

scientific school of college grade founded 
by Philip D. Armour, in Chicago, in 1893. 
It was founded as a co-educational insti¬ 
tution, but was later changed to a school 
for men. It offers courses in all branches 
of engineering, architecture, history, polit¬ 
ical science, philosophy, English compo¬ 
sition, and literature. Its laboratories and 
shops have an exceptional equipment. In 
recent years the endowment has been 
greatly increased by J. Ogden Armour, 
son of the founder. In 1921-22 there were 
about 2,300 students and 70 professors and 
instructors. 

s 

Arms, weapons. We may suppose the 
first weapon to have been a fragment of 
stone thrown from the hand, or a branch 
wrested from a tree and used as a club. 
Later the stone was flung by means of a 
sling, and this missile was displaced by 
the lead or the steel bullet projected by 
an explosive, as powder. The modifica¬ 
tions of the club are too numerous to trace. 
The mace, the sword, and the battle-ax 
may be regarded as weapons for blows 
given with the edge. The long leaf-shaped 
flint knife of primitive man had a keen 
edge and an artistic shape. Its descendants 
are the bronze and steel dagger, the 
poniard, and the bowie knife. The jave¬ 
lin, spear, and lance form still another 
class of weapons for blows given with the 
point. Preceding firearms, were the bow 
and arrow, the crossbow, and the arbalest. 
In contrast with artillery, all sorts of 
guns, the musket, arquebus, rifle, shotgun, 
carbine, pistol, derringer, and Colt’s re¬ 
volver, are called firearms. See Fire¬ 
arms ; Artillery ; Archery ; Gunpow¬ 
der; Sword; Sling; Armor; Arquebus. 

Armstrong, Samuel Chapman (1839- 
1893), an American educator, born in 
Hawaii, in 1839, a son of Richard Arm¬ 
strong, an American missionary to the 
Sandwich Islands. He came to the United 
States in 1860; he was graduated at Wil¬ 
liams College in 1862, and in June of the 
same year he organized a company for the 
125th Regiment of New York Infantry, 
and with it was assigned to the Army of 


the Potomac. At Harper’s Ferry he was 
captured and held prisoner for three 
months. After the close of the war he was 
mustered out of the volunteer service with 
the rank of brigadier-general. During his 
service he volunteered for the command of 
a regiment of colored troops, with which 
he served for two years. In 1866 he took 
up the work of the Freedman’s Bureau 
and at first had the oversight of the col¬ 
ored people in 10 counties of Virginia. 
After two years in this work he procured 
help from the American Missionary Asso¬ 
ciation and personal friends in the North 
and founded a school which afterwards 
became famous as the Hampton Normal 
and Agricultural Institute. The United 
States Government, recognizing the great 
value of his work for colored youth here, 
began sending Indian youth to the Insti¬ 
tute in 1878. General Armstrong served 
as president of the Institute until his death, 
May 11, 1893. 

Armstrong, Sir Walter (1850-1918), 
a British art critic and writer, was born 
in Roxburgshire. On leaving the univer¬ 
sity he gained distinction as a writer on art, 
and his judgment and criticisms of pic¬ 
tures were looked upon as of great value. 
He was art critic to the Pall Mall Gazette, 
St. James’s Gazette and Manchester Ga¬ 
zette from 1880 to 1892. In 1892 he be¬ 
came director of the National Gallery of 
Ireland, and held this position for twenty 
years. He was knighted in 1899. Among 
his chief writings are: Gainsborough and 
His Place in English Art; Sir Joshua 
Reynolds; J. M. W. Turner; Sir Henry 
Raeburn; Art in the British Isles, etc. 

Armstrong, William George (1810- 
1900), an English inventor. He is the in¬ 
ventor of many improvements in hoisting 
apparatus, and other heavy iron machin¬ 
ery ; also of a heavy gun for which he was 
knighted by the British government in 
1858, and raised to the peerage in 1887. 
This gun is neither more nor less than a 
rifle of great strength and large caliber. 
Bars of wrought iron, about two inches 
in width, are raised to a white heat and 
then twisted, spirally, around a cylindrical 
steel core. A second layer of heated bars 
is then twisted outside of the others in an 


ARMY—ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES 


opposite direction; a third layer outside of 
this, and so on, until any desired thickness 
has been obtained. The whole mass is 
then heated to a white heat and forged 
with a steam hammer. Two or more sec¬ 
tions of this sort, about three feet in 
length, are then sawed off square at each 
end, brought together under intense heat, 
and surrounded by large rings to secure 
the joint. The steel core within is then 
removed, and the barrel of the gun is 
bored smooth and rifled with forty spiral 
grooves. An Armstrong weighing ten tons 
throws a thirty-two pound bullet five miles. 
At a distance of two miles a gunner is 
expected to hit a target nine feet square 
nine times out of ten, not bad shooting 
for a rifle. The strength of this gun in 
proportion to its weight renders it possible 
to use heavy charges of powder without 
danger of bursting. See Artillery , 

Army, in military affairs, a large body 
of men trained and armed for war. In 
most civilized countries, all able-bodied 
men, excluding youths under eighteen and 
men over forty-five or fifty, are due for 
military service in case of need. A com¬ 
paratively small number of men resident 
in barracks constitute a standing army, to 
be increased in case of actual war. In a 
few nations, as among the ancient Egyp¬ 
tians and the people of India, the war¬ 
riors constituted a distinct class. The 
Israelites also excused the Levites from 
military service. Formerly many of the 
larger European nations required every 
physically fit young man to serve an ap¬ 
prenticeship of several years in the army, 
and to hold himself in readiness there¬ 
after when called upon. England and the 
United States rely upon permanent stand¬ 
ing armies composed of men enlisted for 
a term of years. In case of actual war, 
volunteers are called for. In case a suffi¬ 
cient number cannot be enlisted in this 
way, an enforced enlistment, or draft, is 
resorted to. For this purpose the names 
of the able-bodied are placed on slips of 
paper in a box, and those whose names are 
drawn at random are required to serve. 

The post war status of the armies of the 
nations that engaged in the World War is 


as follows: 

United States . 165,252 

Great Britain . 277,023 

France . 390,000 

Italy . 250,000 

Belgium . 100,000 

Russia (estimated) .1,595,000 

Japan . 300,000 

Rumania . 230,000 

Jugoslavia . 150,000 

Greece . 200,000 

Portugal . 35,000 

Germany . ^^’2^2 

Austria . 34,000 

Hungary . 35,000 

Bulgaria . 20,000 

Turkey . 100,000 

The strength of almost every army in 
the world was greatly enhanced during the 


World War, when it was found necessary, 
in many countries, to resort to successive 
drafts upon the male population to main¬ 
tain the necessary fighting strength. In 
modern warfare, as great an army is needed 
behind the firing line as on it. This is 


especially true of armies that are moving 
and yet must maintain contact with their 
bases of supply. 

At the end of August, 1921, the strength 


of the army was 165,252 men. 

Army of the United States, The. By 

act of Congress of February 2, 1901, the 
enlisted strength of the army was not to 
exceed 100,000. For the year 1910-11, the 
actual strength was about 92,000. The 
army consisted of 15 regiments of cavalry, 
30 batteries of field artillery, 30 regi¬ 
ments of infantry, 3 battalions of engi¬ 
neers, with the addition of scouts, 1 regi¬ 
ment in Porto Rico, and 50 companies of 
native scouts in the Philippines. 

By order of the War Department in 
August, 1918, the regular army, reserve 
corps, national guard, national army, etc., 
were merged into one great body to be 
known as" the United States Army. On 
November 11, 1918, the United States had 
in France 41 complete divisions, exclusive 
of the negro division which was in course 
of organization. The grand total of 
men in these divisions was 1,975,000, of 
whom 750,000 were combatant troops. In 
addition there were air forces, heavy artil- 
lery, and independent engineer troops not 
attached to these divisions,- and many thou-- 


















ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES 


sands were at ports of embarkation ready 
to sail when the Armistice was signed. It 
may be said that 1,000,000 combatant 
American troops were ready for the Allied 
offensive against the Germans at this time. 
American casualties two weeks preceding 
November 11, 1918, totaled 236,1 17. 

Organization. Under the constitution 
the President is commander in chief of the 
army and navy and Congress has power 
to raise and support armies. It has always 
been the policy of the United States to 
maintain in times of peace as small a stand¬ 
ing army as possible, consistent with the 
safety of the nation. The rank and file 
of the army is composed entirely of en¬ 
listed men. 

The General Staff Corps, consisting of 
55 officials detailed to it, is the chief mil¬ 
itary advisory board to the President and 
the Secretary of War. The head of this 
corps is known as the chief of staff of the 
army. The work of the staff is divided 
among a number of staff bureaus, or de¬ 
partments, such as the Adjutant General’s 
Department, the Inspector General’s De¬ 
partment, the Quartermaster General’s 
Department and the Judge Advocate Gen¬ 
eral’s Department. 

The army is divided into four principal 
combatant branches, i. e., infantry, cavalry, 
artillery and air service. 

Infantry. The samllest unit in the in¬ 
fantry is the squad, consisting in rifle 
companies of a corporal and 7 privates. 
The next higher unit is a section consisting 
of half a platoon, commanded by a ser¬ 
geant. The platoon consists of six squads 
commanded by a lieutenant. 

The rifle company is usually made up 
of about eighteen squads or three platoons. 
The officers of a company are a captain, 
two 1st lieutenants and three 2d lieuten¬ 
ants. The machine gun company consists 
of four officers and 141 men. Three rifle 
companies and the machine gun company 
are joined to form a battalion. 

The regiment consists of three battal¬ 
ions. There are also three additional com¬ 
panies not belonging to any battalion. 
They are headquarters company, and the 
service company, which includes the'band. 
The regiment is considered the most im¬ 


portant combatant unit in the army or¬ 
ganization and it is the unit that especially 
appeals to the soldier’s pride and loyalty. 
Two regiments form a brigade. Brigades 
are joined to form divisions, which are 
united to form corps, which are joined to 
form a field army. 

Cavalry. A troop of cavalry at war 
strength consists of 120 men and 3 officers. 
Four troops form a squadron. Three 
squadrons, a headquarters troop, a ma¬ 
chine gun troop and a service troop form a 
regiment and three regiments form a 
brigade. 

Artillery. The battery is the smallest 
unit in the artillery and it varies in the 
number of men and guns according to the 
branch of artillery to which it belongs. A 
battery of field artillery at war strength 
consists of 4 officers, 146 men, and 4 guns. 
Three batteries form a battalion and two 
battalions form a regiment. Two regi¬ 
ments and ammunition train form a 
brigade. A field artillery brigade at war 
strength has 169 officers and 3,227 men. 

Commissioned and Non-Commissioned 
Officers. Each company has commis¬ 
sioned and non-commissioned officers. 
Commissioned officers hold their authority 
by a commission authorized by the Pres¬ 
ident and confirmed by Congress. All 
officers from 2d lieutenant to general are 
commissioned officers. Sergeants and cor¬ 
porals of the various grades are non-com¬ 
missioned officers. They are appointed by 
the commanding officers of their regiments. 
Warrant officers form a grade between the 
commissioned and non-commissioned offi¬ 
cers. They exercise authority by virtue of 
a warrant granted by the President. War¬ 
rant officers receive the base pay and allow¬ 
ances of a 2d lieutenant. 

Areas. The United States is divided 
into nine army corps areas, each in com¬ 
mand of a major-general, with a general 
of the army as ranking officer over all. 
The headquarters of the areas are: 

First Corps Area, Boston; Second 
Corps Area, Governor’s Island, New 
York; Third Corps Area, Fort McHenry, 
Maryland; Fourth Corps Area, Fort Mc¬ 
Pherson, Georgia; Fifth Corps Area, Fort 
Benjamin Harrison, Indiana; Sixth Corps 


ARMY-WORM—ARNOLD 


Area, Fort Sheridan, Illinois; Seventh 
Corps Area, Fort Crook, Nebraska; 
Eighth Corps Area, Fort Sam Houston, 
San Antonio, Texas; Ninth Corps Area, 

the Presidio, San Francisco. 

Army-Worm, the caterpillar of a dull 

brown nocturnal moth. The larvae take 
the name from a habit of marching from 
field to field in a host. The full grown 
caterpillar is about an inch and a half 
long, and is marked with green, black, and 
yellow stripes. It may be found almost 
anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains, 
but attracts attention only in years of unu¬ 
sual prevalence. If taken in time, a colo¬ 
ny may be extinguished by spraying with 
Paris green. About the only way to stop 
the army-worm when on the march is to 
dig a shallow ditch, steep on the far side, 
with pits here and there. The “worms’ 1 
follow the steep edge seeking a chance to 
climb up, and fall into the pits, where 
they may be taken by the bushel. In¬ 
stances are not uncommon of fields of 
grain and of orchards destroyed by army- 
worms, but birds and parasites prevent 
their becoming a dangerous pest. See 
Insects. 

Ar'nica, a genus of plants half way be¬ 
tween daisies and sunflowers. There are 
three species in the eastern part of the 
United States, and at least four in the 
Rocky Mountain region; but the arnica 
of the druggist is extracted from a Euro¬ 
pean plant ranging over the mountains 
and meadows of the continent from Por¬ 
tugal to Scandinavia. It is called moun¬ 
tain arnica, and mountain tobacco. The 
plant is perennial, with a stem two feet 
high, few leaves, and a head of dark gold¬ 
en flowers. Tincture of arnica is a sot- 
ereign liniment for bruises and was given 
formerly as a remedy in cases of paralysis 
and typhoid fever. 

Ar'no, a river of Italy. Like the M iber, 
it rises in the Apennines. After a course 
of 140 miles, it empties into the Mediterra¬ 
nean halfway from Rome to Genoa. The 
ancient city of Pisa, with its leaning tow¬ 
er, is situated near the mouth of the riv¬ 
er. Florence, with its wonderful bridges, 
cathedrals, and treasures of art, is situated 
in the fruitful upper valley of the Arno. 


The valley of the Tiber is the native seat 
of Roman law and is the home of the 
Roman Church; but Italian art, literature, 
and nationality sprang to life in the 

charming Val d’Arno. 

Arnheim, or Arnhem, Holland, capi¬ 
tal of the province of Gelderland. It is 
situated on the right bank of the Rhine, a 
distance of 35 miles from Utrecht. Its 
situation is one of the most picturesque in 
Holland. The city is surrounded by ram¬ 
parts, erected by the Romans, and these 
surround the older portion of the city, and 
have been made into fine promenades. It 
has many fine old buildings, some of which 
were built in the 15 th century. Popula¬ 
tion, 1920, 70,714. 

Arnold, Benedict (1741-1 BO 1), an 
American soldier. He was born at Nor¬ 
wich, Connecticut, January 14, 1741. At 
the beginning of the Revolutionary War 
he was a colonel in Ethan Allen’s force 
that captured Ticonderoga. He was with 
General Montgomery in the assault on 
Quebec, and was wounded. Later he re¬ 
ceived the rank of brigadier-general as 
a reward for his soldierly conduct. He 
took a brave part in the battle of Saratoga. 
In 1780 he was placed in command of 
Philadelphia. During the winter, he mar¬ 
ried a well known lady, but fell into dis¬ 
sipation. He was court-martialed, and 
was reprimanded by General Washington 
for official misconduct. Whether he des¬ 
paired of the American cause and thought 
he might as well make terms with the ene¬ 
my, or whether he was led astray by vin¬ 
dictive feelings and a desire for revenge, 
will never be known; but, in spite of his 
record for patriotism, he entered into 
treasonable correspondence with the Brit¬ 
ish commander-in-chief. He asked for the 
command of West Point, a request which 
Washington, hoping to conciliate a brave 
soldier, was glad to grant. Sir Henry 
Clinton agreed to give Arnold, it appears, 
$30,000 and a commission in the British 
army for the surrender of this important 
post. The story of the negotiations con¬ 
ducted through Major Andre, the latter’s 
arrest and execution as a spy, and Arnold’s 
flight down the Hudson to New York is 
well known. Arnold was given a British 


ARNOLD—ARNOLD OF WINKELRIED 


colonel’s commission, and in September, 
1781, he led an expedition which cap¬ 
tured Fort Griswold and burned New Lon¬ 
don in his native state. 

At the close of the Revolutionary War 
Arnold retired to London. It is said that 
he was shunned and despised by all ranks 
of society and that he died, June, 1801, 
a wretched outcast,—a man, literally, 
without a country. His character is not 
understood readily. It is difficult to sup¬ 
pose that his early toil, daring, and brav¬ 
ery in the American cause were due to mere 
love of adventure. It is equally difficult 
to understand how a sincere patriot, even 
though he felt himself censured severely 
for a trivial fault, could have turned 
against his native country, or have led 
a marauding band to lay waste, with fire 
and sword, the scenes of his childhood. 

In a skirmish in Virginia he is said to 
have taken two American prisoners. To 
one of them he put the question, “If the 
Americans should catch me, what would 
they do to me?” The soldier replied 
promptly, “They would bury with mili¬ 
tary honors the leg which was wounded 
at Saratoga, and hang the remainder of 
you upon a gibbet.” In this terse reply 
the frontiersman gave a verdict which the 
historian still accepts. 

See Andre ; West Point. 

Arnold, Sir Edwin (1832-1904), an 
English poet and Orientalist. While the au¬ 
thor of several works, his fame rests upon 
one, The Light of Asia, a Poetic Presenta¬ 
tion of the Life and Teaching of Gauta¬ 
ma. Gautama is the family name of Bud¬ 
dha. 

QUOTATIONS FROM “THE LIGHT OF ASIA.” 

The foolish ofttimes teach the wise. 

What good T see humbly I seek to do 
And live obedient to the law, in trust 
That what will come and must come 
Shall come well. 

Making all futures fruits of all the pasts. 

Lo ! as the wind is, so is mortal life 
A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife. 

Pity and need 

Make all flesh kin, there is no caste in blood. 

Arnold, Matthew (1822-1888), an 
English man of letters. He was a son of 
Dr. Thomas Arnold, the famous head 
master of Rugby. He was educated at Ox¬ 


ford. He taught for a time in his fa¬ 
ther’s school and held various government 
positions. In 1851 he was appointed an 
inspector of schools, a position which he 
held until 1883, when he retired on a 
pension of $1,250. During his inspector¬ 
ship he visited the schools of France and 
Germany. He delivered lectures at Ox¬ 
ford University, and in 1886 he visited 
the United States, where he delivered a 
series of critical lectures in the principal 
cities. Of his poems, Sohrab and Rustum 
is best known. Arnold is at his best as 
a writer of critical essays. In these he 
attacked British “Philistinism.” His most 
noted volumes are Culture and Anarchy, 
Literature and Dogma, Essays in Criti¬ 
cism, Mixed Essays, and Discourses in 
America. The following quotation de¬ 
fines Arnold’s attitude: 

The people who believe most that our great¬ 
ness and welfare are proved by our being very 
rich, and who most give their lives and thoughts 
to becoming rich, are just the very people whom 
we call Philistines. Culture says: “Consider 
these people, then, their way of life, their habits, 
their manners, the very tones of their voice; 
look at them attentively; observe the literature 
they read, the things which give them pleasure, 
the words which come forth out of their mouths, 
the thoughts which make the furniture of their 
minds; would any amount of wealth be worth 
having with the condition that one was to become 
just like these people by having it?” And thus 
culture begets a dissatisfaction which is of the 
highest possible value in stemming the common 
tide of men’s thoughts in a wealthy and indus¬ 
trial community, and which saves the future, 
as one may hope, from being vulgarized, even 
if it cannot save the present. 

Arnold of Winkelried, a heroic peas¬ 
ant of Switzerland. According to Swiss 
tradition he was a native of Unterwalden. 
At the battle of Sempach, 1386, the Aus¬ 
trians formed in a solid phalanx against 
the Swiss, who were unable to break 
through the forest of spear points. Ar¬ 
nold, seeing no other way, rushed up and 
gathering an armful of spears in his own 
breast, bore them aside. His countrymen 
rushing in through the gap thus formed 
put the Austrians to flight. Switzerland 
was again safe from foreign invaders. 
Mothers taught their children to honor 
the name of Arnold. For centuries the 
Swiss sentrv pacing his lonely round called 


ARNOLD—ARRACK 


out at the appointed hour of his watch, 
“All is well, remember Arnold of Winkel- 
ried.” As in the case of William Tell, 
historians reject the story as legendary. 
There is no more reason for believing in 
the Swiss Winkelried than in the Greek 
Hercules. See Tell; Switzerland. 

Arnold, Thomas (1795-1842), an 
English scholar and educator. He was 
educated chiefly in the public school of 
Winchester and at Oxford University. He 
prepared himself for the ministry of the 
Church of England, but received an ap¬ 
pointment as a fellow of Oriel College 
and made a reputation by preparing young 
men to enter the university*. In 1828 he 
was made head-master of Rugby School. 
He is known chiefly by his remarkable 
work in that institution. He was con¬ 
sidered liberal in his views. He favored 
the introduction of scientific and histori¬ 
cal subjects, without, however, displacing 
the classics, for the teaching of which 
Rugby was noted. The graduates of the 
school carried off prizes in the universi¬ 
ties and Arnold’s reputation became very 
great. Dean Stanley, one of his old stu¬ 
dents, edited The Life and Correspondence 
of Thomas Arnold. Thomas Hughes’ 
Tom Brown at Rugby gives an excellent 
view of Rugby and Dr. Arnold at their 
best. 

Aroostook, a-roos'tdbk, War, a name 
given to a long-continued dispute concern¬ 
ing the boundary line between New Bruns¬ 
wick, Canada, and Maine. The name 
Aroostook was given to the quarrel from 
the Aroostook River which runs through 
this territory, and near which the militia 
of Maine took their stand when matters 
reached a crisis in 1839. The disputed 
territory comprised some 12,000 square 
miles, including the district from the 
source of the St. Croix River to the water¬ 
shed between those streams flowing to the 
Atlantic Ocean and those flowing to the St. 
Lawrence River. Maine had issued a call 
for 10,000 men in addition to the 1,800 
militia already on the ground, New Bruns¬ 
wick had taken up arms and Nova Scotia 
had voted aid, when Gen. Winfield Scott 
took the matter to President Van Buren 
and a commission was appointed. The 


Ashburton, or Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 
giving New Brunswick 5,000 square miles 
of the territory under dispute, and Maine, 
7,000, was framed by Daniel Webster for 
the United States, and Alexander Baring, 
afterward Lord Ashburton, for Great 
Britain. This treaty was ratified by the 
United States Senate, and the matter set¬ 
tled thus amicably in 1842. When the 
survey provided for in this treaty was 
made, several supposedly American towns 
were found to be on New Brunswick 
soil. 

Arquebus, ar'-kwe-bus, spelled also 
Harquebus. The earliest form of the musket. 
An earlier firearm was set off by means of a 
match applied to the priming. It was 
difficult for a soldier to apply his match 
and to take aim at the same time. The 
arquebus added an improvement suggested, 
it is said, by the arbalest or crossbow. The 
burning match was brought down to the 
priming by pulling a trigger when aim 
had been secured. This was about 1476. 
The Germans are credited with the inven¬ 
tion of a bent stock, which enabled the 
musketeer to take better aim. These old 
muskets were exceedingly heavy, clumsy 
affairs. When engaged in battle, the mus¬ 
keteers advanced to the front, rested their 
arquebuses in crotches carried for the pur¬ 
pose, discharged their pieces, and then re¬ 
tired behind their comrades, the pikemen, 
and reloaded their guns with infinite labor. 
See Firearms. 

Arrack, an oriental drink correspond¬ 
ing to western whiskey. It is made by 
fermenting and then distilling the juice 
of the cocoanut, date, and other palms. 
It is also made from rice by malting, fer¬ 
menting, and distilling, as for whiskey. 
The genuine arrack of Ceylon and India 
is made from palm juice only. In Jamai¬ 
ca it is made from fermented rice liquor. 
The liquor obtained by the first distillation 
is strengthened by passing it through the 
still a second and a third time. Arrack 
contains on an average about 52 per 
cent of alcohol. It is used throughout a 
greater extent of territory, and by more 
people, than whiskey, being well known 
to the nations of South America, Africa, 
India, the Pacific islands, and in the East 


ARRHENIUS—ARSENIC 


generally, including Japan, where it is 
known as saki. It is also imported into 
Europe. See Alcohol. 

Arrhenius, ar-re'ni-us, Svante, one of 
the most distinguished chemists of the 
time. He was born in Sweden in 1859, 
and received the degree of doctor of phi¬ 
losophy at the age of nineteen from the 
University of Upsala. He has worked 
largely in the field of physical chemistry, 
having occupied the chair of physics in 
Stockholm since 1895. His treatises in 
this chosen field are numerous, the best 
known perhaps being his theory of solu¬ 
tion, and his commonly accepted explana¬ 
tion of comets’ tails as due to repulsion on 
approaching the sun. He was the recipient 
of the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1903. 
See Nobel. 

Arrow. See Archery. 

Arrowroot, a starch much used for 
food. This food starch is obtained from 
a number of tropical plants, but the gen¬ 
uine arrowroot is made from a West In¬ 
dian species that has spread to other tropi¬ 
cal countries. The arrowroot plant grows 
about two feet high. It bears white ir¬ 
regular flowers and berries about the size 
of currants. Each plant produces an un¬ 
derground cluster of scaly white root¬ 
stocks which, when mature, yield one- 
fourth of their own weight of a fine starch. 
It is valued as a table delicacy for pud¬ 
dings, etc., and as food easily digested by 
children. Arrowroot may be prepared in 
small quantities by washing, peeling, 
pounding, and mixing with an abundance 
of water. Water takes up the starch, the 
fiber is then strained out, and the water 
is allowed to stand. After the starch set¬ 
tles the water is drawn off. Tire starch 
is then dried and is ready for use. On 
a large scale these operations are carried 
on with mills and vats and drying pans, 
but the general principles are the same. 
St. Vincent, one of the Windward Islands, 
exports a large quantity of arrowroot. 
Great Britain imports 400,000 pounds of 
arrowroot a year. See Starch ; Sago. 

Arsenal, a storehouse or factory for 
making, repairing, or keeping government 
arms, ordnance, and munitions of war. 
Governments very frequently purchase 


guns, bayonets, sabres, and other needful 
articled from contractors; yet all consider¬ 
able governments maintain arsenals. The 
chief arsenals of the United States are at 
Allegheny, Pa.; Augusta, Ga.; Benecia, 
Cal.; Columbia, Tenn.; Fort Monroe, 
Va.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Kennebec, Me.; 
New York, N. Y.; Rock Island, Ill.; San 
Antonio, Tex.; Watertown, Mass.; and 
Watervliet, N. Y., with powder depots at 
St. Louis, Mo.; and Dover, N. J. There 
is a noted armory at Springfield, Mass., and 
a proving ground for cannon at Sandy 
Hook, N. J. Of foreign arsenals, the 
most noted is that at Woolwich, England, 
founded in 1720. The French arsenaU 
are at Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Roche¬ 
fort, and Toulon. There are German ar¬ 
senals at Spandau, Cologne, and Dant- 
zig. The chief Austrian arsenal is at 
Vienna; that of Russia at St. Petersburg, 
and of Italy at Turin. 

Arsenic, a chemical element having a 
grayish white color and a metallic luster. 
It is widely distributed throughout the 
world in very small quantities. It occurs 
usually in union with iron, silver, nickel, 
cobalt, or antimony. Its commercial prep¬ 
aration is confined chiefly to Bohemia, 
Saxony, .and England. One smelter, at 
Everett, Washington, ships, thirty-five 
tons a week to the New York market. In 
bulk it is worth eighty dollars a ton. Ar¬ 
senic is obtained from crushed arsenical 
ore by roasting in carefully glazed earthen 
ovens. It vaporizes at a temperature of 
356°F. and is collected in crystals. The 
free element arsenic is little known; the 
white powdered arsenic of the drug store 
is a compound with oxygen. It is a deadly 
poison, and was known to the ancients. 
The terrible crimes imputed to the Bor- 
gias of the Middle Ages were effected by 
means of arsenic. 

In case of arsenical poisoning the anti 
dotes most likely to be at hand are milk, 
flour and water, or the white of an egg 
and water, the coagulating of which tends 
to entangle the particles of poison and 
sweep them out of the stomach. Arsenic 
is used freely by taxidermists in rendering 
bird skins safe against the attack of in¬ 
sects. Under the name of ratsbane it 


ARSON—ARTESIAN WELLS 


has long been sprinkled on bread and but- 
ter or similar articles of food to clear 
premises of rats and mice. Paris green 
and Scheele’s green are compounds of ar¬ 
senic with copper. The arsenic vapor 
which escapes from copper smelters settles 
to the ground and injures vegetation for 
miles around. This nuisance has been abated 
recently by improved methods of smelting. 

Arsenic may be taken in minute quan¬ 
tities seemingly without injury. The 
women of certain districts of Hungary and 
Switzerland are said to take arsenic to 
whiten the complexion. By beginning with 
infinitely small amounts the dose may be 
increased beyond the dose customarily re¬ 
garded as fatal. Workmen in arsenic 
plants rub their faces and necks with fine 
clay, lest, when they perspire, the open 
pores may absorb an over amount of the 
deadly powder. 

See Poison ; Paris Green ; Spraying. 

Arson, the willful and malicious burn¬ 
ing of a house or building belonging to 
another. If the death of an inmate be 
caused by such malicious action, the per¬ 
petrator is guilty of murder, and may be 
punished for taking life. Malicious set¬ 
ting fire to a house or building in which 
there is a human being at the time, is 
arson of the first degree. The state of 
New York, whose laws have been adopted 
in many states, punishes arson in the first 
degree by any term of imprisonment up 
to forty years; in the second degree by 
a term of not exceeding twenty-five years; 
and for the third degree by a term not 
exceeding fifteen years. An attempt to 
set a fire, providing it goes so far as to 
char or consume the slightest portion, is 
arson. 

Ars Poetica, a discourse on poetry by 
the Latin poet, Horace. See Horace. 

Art, in its broadest sense, designates 
everything which we would distinguish 
from Nature. All things in the creation of 
which man has had no part, may be 
comprehended under the term Nature, 
while the term Art includes all things which 
in any sense owe their existence to man. In 
a somewhat narrower use a distinction is 
made between science and art. Science is 
knowing, Art is doing. In a still more 


specific use the word Art designates the 
fine arts as distinguished fjrom the useful, 
mechanical, or industrial arts. The fine 
arts are those which have to do with the 
production of the beautiful, of that which 
appeals to the taste and imagination. 
They include painting, sculpture, archi¬ 
tecture, music, and poetry. The useful 
arts may produce the beautiful but their 
primary object is to produce the useful. In 
common usage the word Art has been still 
further narrowed until it often designates 
painting and sculpture only, or even paint¬ 
ing alone. See Architecture; Paint¬ 
ing; Sculpture. 

Artemis, ar'te-mis. See Diana. 

Artemisia, a genus of acrid, bitter, 
composite plants, so named by Linnaeus. 
The genus is named for Artemisia, the 
queen of Caria, who built the famous 
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The worm¬ 
wood, the southernwood or oldman, the 
mugwort, and the sage bushes of the al¬ 
kaline plains are all related species. An 
exceedingly bitter, greenish, highly aro¬ 
matic French liqueur, called absinthe, is 
produced by steeping wormwood in alco¬ 
hol and then redistilling. Its excessive 
use produces vertigo and epilepsy. An 
alpine ^rtemisia furnishes a yellow dye. 
The distillation of wormwood oil is carried 
on in several states of the Union, notably 
New York, Michigan, Nebraska, and Wis¬ 
consin. The shrub is cultivated in rows 
like corn. The shoots are cut for distil¬ 
lation several seasons in succession. The 
oil is a dark greenish heavy oil. The 
yield does not exceed ten pounds of oil 
to the acre. See Absinthe; Sagebrush. 

Artemus Ward. See Browne, 
Charles Farrar. 

Artery. See Circulation. 

Artesian Wells, self flowing wells. 
Named from Artois, France, where deep 
wells were sunk at an early date. The old¬ 
est was sunk in 1126. Although the term 
is applied in America to any well of great 
depth, it is applied more correctly only to 
wells from which a stream of water flows. 
The water comes from a stratum of sand 
or gravel exposed to rainfall on higher 
ground, perhaps a thousand miles away. 
Water falling on such a stratum, possibly 


ARTFUL DODGER—ARTHUR 


where it is upheaved in a range of moun¬ 
tains, follows it underground, unable to 
escape upward or downward. When 
tapped by an artesian well, it rises by rea¬ 
son of pressure toward the level of the 
highest part of the watersoaked stratum. 
The flow of the well may be copious at 
first, owing to an accumulation of im¬ 
prisoned water, but its permanent flow is 
dependent on the rainfall or melting snow 
on the distant outcrop. The more artesian 
wells in a given locality, the more likely 
they all are to fall off in supply. 

Ancient artesian wells have been found 
in Egypt. There are artesian wells in 
Italy, Germany, Spain, the Sahara, and in 
China. London and Paris are situated 
over artesian basins. A well near Leip- 
sic, the deepest in the world, goes down 
5,735 feet. Many artesian waters are 
wonderfully pure, others are strongly min¬ 
eral. The Chinese make salt from the 
brine of deep wells thousands of years 
old. A well at St. Louis, 2,200 feet deep, 
is so charged with a sulphurous odor as 
to be useless for household purposes. Ar¬ 
tesian wells are numerous along the At¬ 
lantic coast of the United States, deriving 
their waters, doubtless, from the Appa¬ 
lachians. One of the most noted of these 
at Charleston, South Carolina, is 1,250 
feet deep. A well at Louisville, Ken¬ 
tucky, over 2,000 feet deep, yields 10,000 
barrels of water daily. In the Great 
Plains rrom North Dakota to Texas are 
the greatest artesian regions known. The 
wells derive their water, no doubt, from 
rainfall on the western highlands. In 
many locations in South Dakota, Iowa, 
Kansas, Colorado, Montana, and Texas, 
the flow is sufficient to be of aid in irriga¬ 
tion. Galveston, Texas, has a fine well 
3,000 feet deep. 

Artful Dodger, The, a name applied 
to John Dawkins in Charles Dickens’ Oli¬ 
ver Twist. He is represented as a young 
pickpocket employed by Fagin, the Jew. 
He was so expert that the sobriquet was 
used almost to the exclusion of his right¬ 
ful name. 

Arthur, a British chieftain of the sixth 
century. The name of King Arthur is 
the most famous of any in British tradi¬ 


tions. He is the central figure in the leg¬ 
endary history of the island. So many 
stories grew up about his name that, when 
effort was made to separate fact from fic¬ 
tion, doubt arose whether King Arthur 
himself were a real hero or only an 
invention. It is beyond reasonable ques¬ 
tion, however, that such a king lived and 
won victories, reverence, and affection. 
Arthur is held to have been prince of the 
Silures, a tribe of Britons, in South Wales. 
He was the son of Uther, called Pendrag- 
on. He came to the sovereignty about 510. 
He overcame the Saxons in twelve battles. 
He then reigned in peace for about twen¬ 
ty years, until his nephew Modred re¬ 
volted. Arthur was mortally wounded in 
the battle of Camion, Cornwall. He was 
taken by sea to Glastonbury, and there 
died and was buried. About 1150, by 
command of Henry II, the grave said to 
be Arthur’s was opened. In it were found 
the monarch’s bones and his sword. Upon 
a leaden cross let into the stone were the 
words, “Here lies buried the famous King 
Arthur, in the island Avalonia.” 

These are the accepted facts of Arthur’s 
life and death—all that are known. As 
to the traditions, they are almost innu¬ 
merable, many of them being still current 
among the peasants of Somersetshire and 
Devonshire, England. That they centered 
around this one figure may be due less 
to the real character of Arthur than to 
the fact that the people were ready for 
a hero. The hope and confidence Arthur’s 
victories and just reign had inspired were 
quenched in his defeat and death, but this 
hero worship softened the disappointment. 
Among his people in the mountains of 
Wales, and across the channel where many 
Britons had fled from the encroaching 
Saxons, the stories of Arthur’s prowess 
were told and retold. The vivid imagina¬ 
tions of these primitive people endowed 
him with every beauty, and credited him 
with every noble deed of which they heard 
or which they could invent. 

Stories of supernatural occurrences, read¬ 
ily believed in that superstitious age, were, 
interwoven with the other tales until this 
“hero of a vanquished race” became a 
demigod. In these stories, Arthur’s birth 


ARTHUR 


and death are shrouded in mystery. One 
oft repeated tale was that, as an infant, 
he had come in from the sea riding on 
a great wave. At the time of his election 
to the sovereignty, a miracle had pointed 
to him as king. Miracles attended his 
coronation. The wisdom ascribed to him 
as a ruler was only equaled by his power 
as a warrior. Tennyson’s Lancelot says 
to Arthur, “The power of God descends 
upon thee in the battlefield,” and it is 
evident that a widespread belief existed 
that Arthur received supernatural aid in 
combat. The knights of Arthur’s Round 
Table shared in his glory. Their deeds of 
prowess against the Saxons and in single 
combat against those who wronged the in¬ 
nocent and wrought evil in the land, are 
only second to those of Arthur himself. 
Their loyalty to their king and his in¬ 
fluence over them is a marked feature of 
the legends. In the “last great battle of 
the west” Arthur was wounded and borne 
away, but it was long believed that the 
prophecy was to be fufilled, “He passes 
and is healed and cannot die.” As the 
peasants of the Hartz Mountains long ex¬ 
pected Barbarossa’s return, so Arthur’s 
people in Wales and Brittany believed that 
he would come again to reign over his 
people. 

It is impossible to appreciate fully or 
even to conceive the influence which this 
“ideal knight” has had in the develop¬ 
ment of the race. Some little idea of it 
may be obtained by tracing the Arthurian 
legends and their offshoots in literature. 
In the history of civilization there are in¬ 
stances, and this is one, where the ideal 
is a more real thing than the real itself. 
For a thousand years these stories fur¬ 
nished important literary material. As 
early as the eighth century, Nennius, a 
British monk, wrote in Latin an account 
of the wars of Arthur. Geoffrey of Mon¬ 
mouth in the twelfth century wrote a Lat¬ 
in History of the Kings of Britain, claim¬ 
ing to get his material from a “very old 
book in the British language,” brought 
from Brittany. In this he told the tale 
of King Arthur. Wace wrote it in French. 
Layamon, an English priest, had Arthur 
in mind when he wrote his Brut. 


While the age of chivalry was in full 
flower, the stories and ballads of King 
Arthur and his knights were told and sung 
in courts and castles throughout all Eu¬ 
rope. In the fifteenth century, Sir Thomas 
Malory wrote the story in English prose, 
which he called Morte d } Arthur, or the 
Death of Arthur. Dante, Ariosto, and 
Tasso in far away Italy, and Hans Sachs, 
the shoemaker poet of Nuremberg, used 
the King Arthur legends freely. Spen* 
ser’s pictures of knightly courtesy and 
maidenly need in the Faerie Queene are 
drawn from the tales of the Round Table. 
Their influence may be traced in the writ ■ 
ings of Chaucer, Scott, Schiller, Shakes¬ 
peare, Dryden, Milton, and many others. 
Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation of the 
Mabinogion, or Welsh Tales, in 1838-49, 
created a new interest in these early 
mances, which has extended to America. 
Lowell has probably given us the most 
popular example of a poem inspired by 
these stories. His Sir Launfal is clearly 
one of Arthur’s Knights. Of all the 
poets, Tennyson has given the legends 
their most fitting expression. His Idylls 
of the King would seem to be their final 
setting. Not until the world grows older 
and changes its way of looking at things, 
not until the language of Tennyson be¬ 
comes antiquated, will there be an oppor¬ 
tunity even for a master mind to rewrite 
the doings of Arthur and the knights who 
sat at his table, fought by his side, and 
rode their rides of knightly daring. 

See Tennyson; Geoffrey of Mon¬ 
mouth ; Mabinogion ; Idylls of the 
King; Brut. 

King Arthur is more than a shadow; his 
name is carved upon the corner-stone of our 
civilization.—J. Loughran Scott. 

As to Arthur, more renowned in songs and 
romances than in true stories, who he was, and 
whether ever any such reigned in Britain, hath 
been doubted heretofore, and may again, with 
good reason.—Milton. 

King Arthur is the embodiment of those high¬ 
er qualities that marked the ambition of the 
people. 

Arthur, Chester Alan (1830-1886), 
the twenty-first president of the United 
States. Born* at Fairfield, Vermont, Octo¬ 
ber 5, 1830. Died in New York City, 


ARTHUR’S SEAT—ARTILLERY 


November 18, 1886. He was a graduate 
of Union College, and a practicing law¬ 
yer in New York. During the Civil War 
he was a quartermaster general. In poli¬ 
tics he was a supporter of the Stalwarts 
and Roscoe Conkling. In 1880 he was 
nominated and elected vice-president, and 
upon Garfield’s assassination took oath of 
office for the presidency. President Arthur 
was a candidate for the nomination in 
1884, but was defeated by Mr. Blaine. 
His administration was eminently respect¬ 
able, intelligent, and free from partisan¬ 
ship. See Garfield ; President. 

Arthur’s Seat, a hill in the vicinity of 
Edinburgh. It rises to a height of 822 
feet above the sea, and commands a fine 
view of Edinburgh and the ocean. On 
two sides the hill presents vertical walls 
Some prominent veins of basalt are popu¬ 
larly known as “Samson’s Ribs.” “The 
Queen’s Drive” winds easily to the top. 
A fine footway along the west side is 
thus mentioned by Walter Scott: “This 
path along the Salisbury Crags used to be 
my favorite evening and morning resort 
when engaged with an author or a new 
subject of study.” It has been superseded 
by a drive. Arthur’s Seat and its imme¬ 
diate vicinity are associated with Scott’s 
Heart of Midlothian and “Jeanie Deans.” 
See Scott; Edinburgh. 

Artichoke, a name given to two very 
different, coarse, composite plants. The 
European or French artichoke is a coarse 
thistle-like plant with blue and white 
flowers. Portions of the large flower heads 
are pickled, cut for salads, or cooked and 
served like cauliflower. The globe varie¬ 
ty is popular in the United States, chiefly 
in the milder climate of the south. The 
Jerusalem artichoke is a broad-leafed, 
coarse, wild sunflower, native in Canada 
and the upper Mississippi Valley. The 
tuberous roots were collected by the In¬ 
dians for food. It has been introduced 
into some parts of Europe. In America 
artichokes have value as stock food. The 
tubers are fed chiefly to hogs. On the 
same principle that grain is scattered in 
straw to give hens the exercise of scratch¬ 
ing, artichokes are planted in hog pastures 
for the pleasurable exercise they afford 


the hog in rooting, as well as for the small 
amount of potato-like food they supply. 

Articles of Confederation, a docu¬ 
ment drawn up in 1776 by a committee 
from the Continental Congress, an assem¬ 
bly of deputies from the thirteen colonies. 
They were called “Articles of Confedera¬ 
tion and Perpetual Union,” were submitted 
to Congress, and were ratified by every one 
of the thirteen states. According to these 
articles each state had one vote in Con¬ 
gress, and nine states must give their ap¬ 
proval in order that an act might pass. 
Congress could make recommendations to 
the various states but had no power to en¬ 
force such recommendations. No courts 
were provided for. The weakness and in¬ 
completeness of these Articles was appar¬ 
ent as soon as they went into effect, and in 
1787 a convention of fifty-five members 
representing twelve states and presided 
over by Washington, drew up the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States, which by 1790 
had been ratified by the thirteen states. 
See Constitution. 

Articles, The Thirty-Nine, the articles 
of faith of the Church of England. The 
Articles constitute the body of divinity, 
the theological tenets of the Anglican 
Church. The Articles are the result of 
various drafts. These are founded on 
forty-two articles drawn up by Archbishop 
Cranmer in 1551. They were finally 
adopted, thirty-nine in number, in 1571. 
The subscriber professes a belief in the 
doctrine of the Trinity, in apostolic suc¬ 
cession, in the Nicene creed, in the sac¬ 
raments of the Lord’s Supper and baptism, 
in predestination, and in the supremacy of 
the king. Certain articles reject the doc¬ 
trine of purgatory and condemn the cele¬ 
bration of mass. The thirty-second arti¬ 
cle permits the clergy to marry. All 
the clergymen of the Episcopal church, 
both within the British Empire and in 
America, must accept the Thirty-nine Ar¬ 
ticles. Students desiring to enter Oxford 
or Cambridge Universities were required 
formerly to subscribe to the Articles. This 
rule was abolished during the reign of 
Queen Victoria. See Catechism. 

Artillery in its broader sense includes 
all guns which cannot be fired from the 


ARUNDEL MARBLES 


shoulder. There is some reason to believe 
that cannon were invented by the Chinese, 
and were used by the Saracens. The first 
authentic record of the use of artillery is 
in the account of the battle of Crecy in 
1346. The cannon which were used by 
the English in that battle were made of 
iron bars which were bound together with 
hoops. The development of artillery was 
slow until the nineteenth century, but it 
has been rapid in the past fifty years. The 
guns which comprise our modern artillery 
vary, in size, from the 37 mm. (about 1.5 
in.) to the 16-inch guns of our coast de¬ 
fense fortifications. Even larger guns 
have been developed but they have not 
come into general use. During the World 
War the Germans fired into Paris from a 
range of seventy-one miles. 

Some of the most famous guns of the 
present day are the “French 75” and the 
Krupp Howitzers. These guns are the re¬ 
sult of the invention of powerful explo¬ 
sives, recoil mechanisms to absorb the 
shock of the explosives, and the process 
of “Nesting” tubes to form the barrel 
of the gun. This last mentioned process 
greatly increases the strength of the gun 
without a proportional increase in the 
weight. 

Artillery is divided into two general 
types: the guns which deliver a high ve¬ 
locity, flat trajectory fire; and the how¬ 
itzers which deliver a low velocity, curved 
trajectory fire. In other words, the gun 
“throws” the projectile almost on a direct 
line to the target, while the howitzer 
“tosses” the shell high in the air and lets 
it fall on the target. 

Under our present organization these 
guns are divided among three branches of 
the Army. The 37 mm. and the “Stokes 
Mortar” are assigned to the Infantry. The 
2.95 in. (Mountain Gun), the 75 mm. gun 
(3 in.), the 155 mm. Howitzer (6 in.), and 
the 240 mm. Howitzer (9 in.) are assigned 
to the Field Artillery. The larger guns 
are manned by the Coast Artillery Corps. 
The guns which are assigned to the Field 
Artillery are those which can be trans¬ 
ported rapidly enough to keep up with the 
mobile army. The mobility of the larger 
guns, such as the 155 mm. and the 240 


mm., has been greatly increased by the de¬ 
velopment of the tractor; and this develop¬ 
ment has made possible their employment 
as field artillery. 

The increased range and accuracy of 
these new guns, and the development of 
new methods to control their fire has more 
than doubled the usefulness of artillery in 
supporting an infantry attack. This fact 
became apparent in the early part of the 
World War and the proportion of ar¬ 
tillery to infantry in modern armies has 
been greatly increased. 

Arundel Marbles, or Oxford Mar¬ 
bles, a collection of ancient sculptures 
and inscribed stones, the possession of the 
University of Oxford. The original col¬ 
lection, only a portion of which bears the 
name of Arundel or Arundelian marbles, 
was founded by Thomas Howard, Earl of 
Arundel and Earl Marshal of England 
(1592-1646), who by travel and residence 
in Italy had acquired a strong taste for 
works of art. He employed agents to 
make collections of antiquities in Greece, 
Italy and Asia Minor, and they purchased 
for him and brought to England in 1627 
the marbles which now bear the earl’s 
name. They had been found on the island 
of Paros about 1610, the original collec¬ 
tion consisting of 37 statues, 128 busts and 
250 inscribed stones. The collection was 
preserved in Arundel House, but during 
the disturbances attendant upon the reign 
of Charles I and the Protectorate, the 
house was at times deserted, many of the 
marbles were stolen, others defaced, and 
still others adapted to the uses of ordinary 
architecture. At the death of the earl the 
collection was divided, the inscribed mar¬ 
bles, by far the most valuable part of the 
collection, falling to the elder son, and 
ultimately through his son, Henry How¬ 
ard, coming into the possession of Oxford 
University. The most valuable piece in 
the collection is the one bearing the Parian 
Chronicle. It is a large oblong slab of 
Parian marble, and bears, inscribed in cap¬ 
ital letters, a chronological record of the 
history of Greece and Athens for a period 
of over thirteen hundred years, beginning 
with the reign of Cecrops 1582 B. C. The 
chronicle of the last ninety years has been 


ARYAN RACE—ASBESTOS 


lost and the entire inscription is seriously 
defaced. 

Aryan Race, a name applied to what 
has been termed the Indo-European or In- 
do-Germanic family. According to a theo¬ 
ry now pretty well exploded, the Aryans 
were originally located somewhere in Cen¬ 
tral Asia, possibly east of the Caspian, 
whence they swarmed eastward to Afghan¬ 
istan and northern India, and westward 
throughout Europe. Owing to the wide¬ 
spread use of many common words, such 
as father and mother, it was conjectured 
that the Celts, Teutons, Greeks, Latins, 
Slavs, Persians, and Hindus were but 
swarms or branches of the same race— 
a great Aryan family. It is now believed 
that the Hindu, the Irishman, and the 
Norwegian indeed derived similar words 
from some one source, or by early inter¬ 
course ; but it is held that differences in 
the shape of the head and many other 
physical characteristics justify the assump¬ 
tion that these people belong to different 
races. Race is a matter, not of language, 
but of physical structure. In other words, 
the old so-called Indo-European or Aryan 
family has been broken up into fragments 
of uncertain size, relationship, and origin. 
It is still allowable to speak of Aryan 
languages, but not of an Aryan race. 

Asafetida, as'a-fet'i-da, a drug ob¬ 
tained from a plant of the parsley family, 
native to Persia and Afghanistan. In ear¬ 
ly spring the leaves are torn off and the 
soil is removed from the parsnip-like root, 
until it is exposed for an inch or two. A 
few w’eeks later a horizontal slice is cut 
from the top of the root. A milky juice 
then oozes up* and dries into the gum-resin 
like lumps in which asafetida is brought 
to market. The drug has so disagreeable 
an odor that the Germans call it “devil’s 
drug.” It is not a welcome article of 
freight among western nations, but in In¬ 
dia, Persia, and even in France it is used 
like garlic to flavor food. In Anglo-Sax¬ 
on countries, asafetida is considered a 
valuable remedy in cases of hysteria, infant 
convulsions, etc. See Druqs ; Medicine. 

Asbestos, a fibrous variety of the min¬ 
eral amphibole or hornblende, composed of 
separable filaments, with a silky luster; 


also the name popularly applied to a sim¬ 
ilar variety of the mineral serpentine, 
called chrysotile. It is mined in Canada, 
Vermont, Georgia, Wyoming, Virginia, 
South Carolina, and in Staten Island, New 
York. Some varieties are compact and 
take a fine polish; others are loose, like 
flax or silky wool. Its fibers are some¬ 
times delicate, flexible, and elastic, some¬ 
times stiff and brittle, and when reduced 
to a powder are soft to the touch. Its 
colors are various shades of white, gray, 
or green, passing into brown, red, or black. 
The name is derived from a Greek word 
meaning “incombustible” and the great 
value of asbestos lies in its resistance to 
heat and fire, for which reason it has been 
applied to many commercial uses. 

The ancient Romans first learned its 
value and obtained their supply from the 
Italian Alps and the Ural mountains. The 
Alpine variety was known as amianthus, 
and when it was found that cloth made 
from this material was indestructible bv 

j 

fire, it was used for wrapping dead bodies 
before they were placed on the funeral 
pyre, in order to preserve the ashes for 
preservation in urns. This kind of cloth 
then became the funeral dress of kings, 
as it w r as both rare and costly. In the 
thirteenth century the traveler Marco Polo 
found in Siberia a similar cloth that fire 
would not destroy, but it was not until 
1720 that the manufacture of asbestos 
began in Europe, after fresh discoveries of 
deposits of the mineral in the Ural moun¬ 
tains. 

About 1860 it began to be of commer¬ 
cial importance, and some years later as¬ 
bestos mining began in the province of 
Quebec, Canada, which produced finer 
grades of the fire-resisting material than 
had been known up to that time. Soon 
Canada was producing about 85 per cent 
of the world’s output, Russia 10 per cent, 
the United States 3 per cent, and Africa 
and other countries 2 per cent. The 
Quebec deposits are found in two districts, 
one known as the Thetford and Black Lake 
district and the other as the Danville dis¬ 
trict. Deposits are known as cross fiber, 
slip fiber, or mass fiber, according as the 
fiber crosses the vein or is parallel to it. 


ASBESTOS 


The veins of the mineral vary from a 
mere thread in width up to four or six 
inches, and are very irregular. The length 
of the fiber cannot be told from the width 
of the vein. In Quebec the mines have 
been carried to a depth of several hundred 
feet, the quality of the asbestos being the 
same at all depths. It is valued for trade 
purposes according to the length and fine¬ 
ness of the fiber, its resistance to heat, 
strength under pull, and flexibility. Some 
varieties will withstand a temperature of 
5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while most will 
resist from 2,000 to 3,000 degrees of heat. 

Asbestos is truly one of nature’s most 
wonderful products. When mined, it is 
in rock formation, heavy and dense; but 
the rock is composed of silky fibers which 
can be separated into convenient lengths, 
carded, spun, and woven, like flax, wool, 
or silk. Each fiber is light and feathery, 
yet in the mass this wonderful material has 
outlasted the hardest kinds of rock in the 
earth’s crust, for while these latter are 
worn away by time, asbestos imbedded in 
them remains as the ancients found it, 
“indestructible.” It resists the action of 
nearly all commercial acids as well as de¬ 
cay, heat, and fire. It is generally de¬ 
scribed by chemists as a silicate of mag¬ 
nesia, with slight traces of other minerals. 

In order to produce 100 tons of asbestos 
fiber in the Quebec mines, it is necessary 
to quarry, blast, hoist, and crush in the 
mills about 2,000 tons of the rock in which 
it is found. Asbestos mines are operated 
like large stone quarries, the miners work¬ 
ing down by a series of steps or benches, 
which enable them to blast out a large 
quantity of rock at a time. Visible veins 
of asbestos are then removed from the 
blasted rock by men called “cobbers” with 
small hammers, and this is graded accord¬ 
ing to quality on the spot; but the bulk of 
the rock is loaded into cars by steam 
shovels, or hoisted to the surface in buckets, 
and conveyed to the crushing mills. The 
crushed rock is then passed over shaking- 
screens and as the fiber is much lighter 
than the rock, the asbestos comes to the 
top when the screens are shaken and is 
sucked by a current of air into revolving 
cylinders, called graders. 


These graders complete the mining pro¬ 
cess by separating the fiber into three dif¬ 
ferent grades for the market. The best 
grade is called long spinning fiber and is 
used in the manufacture of various fire¬ 
proof textiles. The second is a medium 
grade, used for making roofing material, 
heat insulation, etc.; and the third, called 
short grade asbestos, is used in the manu¬ 
facture of millboard, cement, etc. The 
fiber is packed and shipped in bags con¬ 
taining 100 pounds each. The value of the 
product ranges from $10 to $300 a ton. 

The commercial use of asbestos has in¬ 
creased rapidly in recent years. It is 
woven into cloth of various weights, thick¬ 
nesses, and density, for use as fireproof 
theater curtains, lining theater walls and 
scenery, and firemen’s clothing. When in¬ 
tended for a theater curtain, it is often 
combined with strands of fine brass wire, 
the asbestos yarn being twisted around the 
wire before weaving into cloth. Ropes 
used by firemen 'are also often made of 
asbestos, being either entirely composed of 
asbestos fiber or of asbestos with a steel 
wire core. Such a rope of ^4-inch diam¬ 
eter with wire core has been found capable 
of sustaining a weight of nearly 2,000 
pounds, and without the core asbestos rope 
is sufficiently strong for the ordinary uses 
of a fire department. Other uses to which 
asbestos is applied include the manufac¬ 
ture of roof shingles, or asbestos slate; 
stucco plaster, fireproof lumber, or as¬ 
bestos wood; mill board, asbestos paper, 
insulating material, and packings; cover¬ 
ings for pipes, furnaces, and parts of 
locomotives, to prevent radiation of heat; 
brake linings for automobiles, motor 
trucks, hoists and cranes, and as a filler 
for high-grade paints. One of the most 
important of these varied uses is that of 
asbestos packings and gaskets for the steam 
locomotive, which have made possible the 
use of high-pressure and superheated 
steam. Asbestos is also one of the best 
filtering materials known, and as a non¬ 
conductor of heat is made up into clothing 
for the protection of workmen from the 
dangers of electrical and blast furnaces, 
glass plants, etc. It is also used for many 
domestic purposes where protection from 


ASBJORNSEN—ASCHAM 


intense heat is required. Asbestos mats are 
a good illustration. 

Asbjornsen, Peter Christen (1812-85), 
a distinguished student of folklore and 
zoology, was born at Christiania. He re¬ 
reived his education at Christiania, after 
which he was a teacher for several years. 
He devoted himself to zoological and 
botanical studies, and made long journeys 
on foot for scientific purposes. While on 
these journeys he collected folk tales and 
legends, and in the writing of these and 
their publication, he was aided by his life 
long friend, Jorgen Moe. Among these 
are Norske Folkeeventyr (Norwegian Folk 
Tales); and Norske Huldre-eventyr og 
Folkesagn (Norwegian Fairy Tales and 
Folk Legends). 

On account of his scientific researches 
the government allowed him traveling sti¬ 
pends from 1846 to 1853. He later 
studied forestry and held several positions 
in connection with the forest and turf in¬ 
dustries, until 1876, when he was pen¬ 
sioned. He made important discoveries in 
deep sea-soundings, and wrote much on 
scientific subjects, but his fame rests on 
his fairy tales, which are original and 
show an unusual literary talent. 

Asbury, Francis (1745-1816) the first 
Methodist Bishop to be ordained in the 
United States. He was born in the vicinity 
of Birmingham, England, and came to 
Philadelphia in 1771 to do missionary 
work. During the Revolutionary War 
Asbury was under suspicion, but after two 
years’ surveillance the government decided 
that his scruples were religious, rather than 
political, and he was set free. When he 
came to America there were but 316 Meth¬ 
odists in the Conference, but after his re¬ 
lease from government surveillance he 
worked so diligently that soon there were 
83 Methodist ministers and a membership 
of nearly 14,000. With Thomas Coke, 
Asbury was made a “joint superintendent,” 
which title was later changed to “bishop.” 
His only writings were his journals. 

Ascanius, as-ka'ni-us, or lulus, i-u'lus, 
in classical legend, the son of Aeneas and 
Creusa. As a child he accompanied his 
father in his wanderings after the 'Projan 
War. Later he supported Aeneas in his 


wars with the Latins, succeeded him in the 
government of Latium, and founded the 
city of Alba Longa. His descendants 
ruled Alba for 420 years. They are called 
the Julii. See Aeneas; Troy. 

Ascension, a small island in the south¬ 
ern Atlantic 1,000 miles off the Guinea 
coast. The area is 35 square miles. Pop¬ 
ulation, 120. The island is of volcanic 
origin. It rises to a height of about 3,000 
feet. Fifteen acres are under cultivation. 
A small British garrison is maintained. 
There is a regular postal service. Tele¬ 
graphic communication is carried on with 
St. Helena 700 miles to the southeast, with 
England, and with the Cape of Good 
Hope. The island is the resort of the 
sea turtle, which come in thousands to 
lay their eggs in the sand. In 1907, 106 
were taken, from 392 to 777 pounds in 
weight; they are stored in ponds, and even¬ 
tually killed and distributed among the 
people. Rabbits, wild goats, partridges, 
pheasants, and guinea-fowl are more or less 
numerous on the island, which is, besides, 
the breeding ground of myriads of the 
sooty terns or “wideawake.” These birds 
come in vast numbers to lay their eggs 
about every eighth month. 

Asceticism. See Anchorites. 

Ascham, as'kam, Roger (1515-1568), 
a Yorkshire scholar. He was a graduate 
of Cambridge. He was renowned as a 
student of Greek and Latin. In 1548 he 
became tutor to the Princess, afterward 
Queen, Elizabeth, with whom he read Cic¬ 
ero, Livy, Sophocles, and other classical 
writers. Ascham traveled extensively as 
secretary to the English ambassador to 
Charles V. He wrote a famous treatise 
on archery, called ToxopJiilus. His best 
known work, however, is The Scolemas- 
ter, expressiye of his methods of teaching 
Latin, and giving in a general way his 
conception of the proper method of edu¬ 
cation. The Scolemaster will well repay 
careful reading. Although he lived in an 
age when Latin was the language of the 
educated, and was himself the leading Lat¬ 
in scholar of his day, Ascham took pride 
in saying of the ToxopJiilus, that he had 
“written this Englishe matter in the Eng- 
lishe for Englishemen.” See Elizabeth. 


ASH—ASHES 


Ash, an exceedingly useful and hand¬ 
some tree of the north temperate zone. 
There are about fifty species. The ashes 
are fine shade and ornamental trees. The 
English ash and the white ash of America 
yield valuable timber, much used for tool 
handles, wagon tongues, inside finish of 
houses, furniture, splint baskets, cars, and 
all other purposes for which a light, 
straight-grained, moderately tough wood is 
desired. We have a white ash, a black 
ash, a red ash, a blue ash, a water ash, 
a green ash, and several others which it is 
sometimes almost impossible to tell apart. 
In the south of Europe, especially in Italy, 
grows the manna, or flowering ash. From 
it a white substance called manna is ob¬ 
tained by cutting the bark. Sometimes 
this substance drops from the leaves with¬ 
out any artificial stimulus. In warm coun¬ 
tries the common ash also is said to pro¬ 
duce a whitish substance like manna. Cul¬ 
tivated varieties of ash are: the weeping 
ash, the branches of which bend almost 
to the ground; the curled-leaved ash. and 
the entire-leaved ash, with many of the 
leaves simple, instead of compound as is 
usual. The flowers of the ash appear in 
early spring before the leaves. The seed 
of the ash is furnished with a wing that 
causes it to whirl to a distance in falling. 
The so-called “mountain ash” with red 
berries is not an ash at all, but belongs 
to the pear tribe. 

Ashanti, a British possession in West 
Africa, was placed under the protection of 
the Crown in 1896, and was formally an¬ 
nexed in 1901. The territory has an area 
of approximately 20,000 square miles, and 
is separated from the Gulf of Guinea by 
the British Gold Coast. Ashanti had a 
population in 1921 of 420,000. Coomas- 
sie, the chief town, has 20,000 inhabitants. 
The governor of the Gold Coast is also 
the governor of Ashanti, but the Gold 
Coast laws and ordinances do not apply 
to the annexed territory. 

The natives are docile, industrious ne¬ 
groes, engaged in the cultivation of cocoa 
and rubber plantations, and in gold min¬ 
ing. The Ashanti forests are rich in ma¬ 
hogany, cedar, oil and rubber bearing trees, 
and trees bearing fruits and gum copal. 


These forests, if properly preserved, will 
be a valuable source of revenue for years 
to come. Game is plentiful in the eastern 
part of the country. Rainfall and small 
streams insure an abundant water supply, 
and corn, yams, ground-nuts and bananas 
are grown in large quantities. The gold 
output in 1920 was 70,719 ounces. 

The government maintains numerous 
schools in Ashanti, and there are also a 
number of mission schools. A police force 
of 155 men is all that is needed to keep 
order in the country. 

Ashburton, Alexander Baring, Lord, 
(1774-1848), an English diplomat, known 
in the United States through his having 
framed with Daniel Webster the Ash¬ 
burton Treaty, by which the boundary dis¬ 
pute known as the Aroostook War, was 
settled without bloodshed. See Aroostook 
War. 

Ashburton Treaty. See Webster Ash¬ 
burton Treaty. 

Ashes, the earthy, mineral substances 
left after burning. They are the part of 
an animal or plant that cannot be burnt. 
Ashes consist largely of lime, sand, soda, 
and potash, and may contain sulphur, phos¬ 
phorus, zinc, copper, iron, and other ele¬ 
ments. Different parts of a plant or ani¬ 
mal yield ashes of different composition. 
It is quite possible for a chemist to deter¬ 
mine the source of many ashes. He would 
have no difficulty, for instance, in distin¬ 
guishing between the ashes of a cigar and 
those of a corncob; or between the ash of 
maple sugar and that of raw cane sugar. 
How plants, growing side by side in the 
same soil, can store up different solid ma¬ 
terials in their tissue is an interesting prob¬ 
lem. Certain seaweeds, growing wholly 
afloat in salt water, notably on the coast of 
Ireland, yield ashes rich in iodine, yet no 
trace of iodine can be found in the sea wa¬ 
ter. It would seem that each species has the 
ability to select the earthy food of its own 
desire. A plant accepts a substitute so 
far as it can, taking more magnesia, for 
instance, in case lime is scarce; but in gen¬ 
eral the farmer and gardener may accept 
the double lesson taught by ashes,—-first, 
that the soil must supply w T hat the plant 
needs or it will not grow, and secondly. 


ASHEVILLE—ASIA 


that soil will best raise the kind of plants 
for which it has the requisite sort of food. 

Lye obtained by leaching or allowing 
water to trickle through an ash barrel or 
a hopper of ashes has long been used for 
soap making. Hardwood ashes, especially 
those of hickory and maple, are the best 
for this purpose. Wood ashes are also 
an excellent fertilizer for fields. They 
should be well scattered, however. The 
ashes of coniferous trees, as pine and fir, 
have little value for either purpose. 

Asheville, N. C., a celebrated health 
resort, is stuated in the Blue Ridge 
Mountains, near the confluence of the 
French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, 210 
miles west of Raleigh, and on the South¬ 
ern Railroad, which has four lines radi¬ 
ating from the city. The elevation is 
2,350 feet, and many of the mountains 
nearby rise to 6,000 feet. The mean an¬ 
nual temperature is 55° F. 

Asheville is a favorite health resort, be¬ 
ing visited, summer and winter, by more 
than 200,000 health seekers annually. 

There are a number of beautiful parks 
in the city and surrounding country, which 
may be reached by automobile over excel¬ 
lent roads. Biltmore, the famous country 
home of George W. Vanderbilt, is two 
miles southeast of the city. It is considered 
the most beautiful and magnificent private 
estate in America. Its area was originally 
132,000 acres, and included Pisgah Forest 
and botanical gardens, with many rare 
specimens. Pisgah Forest was purchased 
by the National Forest Reservation Com¬ 
mission in 1914. 

The more conspicuous buildings include 
the Park Memorial Library, the Federal 
building, the auditorium, and a number of 
hotels and sanatoriums. In addition to 
the public schools, there are a Normal and 
Collegiate Institute, the Home Industrial 
School, Saint Genevieve’s College, Ashe¬ 
ville School for Boys, and Asheville School 
for Girls. Population, 28,504. 

Ashland, Ky., a manufacturing city on 
the Ohio river in Boyd County, 155 miles 
from Cincinnati, on the Chesapeake & Ohio 
and the Norfolk & Western railroads. Its 
location is in a rich oil and lumber region, 
)and it is a manufacturing center. Ashland 


was settled in 1854 and incorporated in 
1870. Population, 14,729. The Tri-State 
Chautauqua is held at Clydesdale, in a 
private park of 75 acres. 

Ashland, Wis., the county seat of Ash¬ 
land County, is situated on Chequamegah 
Bay, an arm of Lake Superior. It is 
important as the northern terminus of the 
Chicago and Northwestern railroad, and 
the eastern terminus of the Northern Pa¬ 
cific. The twenty mile long harbor is the 
most sheltered on Lake Superior. Ash¬ 
land is the shipping point of the Gogebic 
Iron Range. It has a modern school sys¬ 
tem, including a model high school costing 
originally $150,000. Population, in 1920, 
11,334. 

Ashtabula, Ohio, is situated at the 
mouth of the Ashtabula River, 55 miles 
east of Cleveland. Through its railroad 
and lake commerce, aided by extensive 
harbor and river improvement, it has 
developed into an important transfer 
shipping point, particularly for coal and 
iron. It has a large dry dock and a ship¬ 
building plant, as well as many factories, 
the chief products of which are farm im¬ 
plements, woolen goods and leather goods. 
The population was, in 1920, 22,082. 

Ashtoreth. See Baal. 

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. 
It is so called from a custom in the Roman 
church of sprinkling ashes on the heads 
of penitents on that day. This ceremony 
is said to have been instituted by Gregory 
the Great. The rite, as performed at the 
present day, is somewhat different. The 
ashes are now consecrated on the altar, 
sprinkled with holy water, signed with the 
cross, and scattered over the heads of the 
worshipers, while the priest repeats, in 
Latin, the words: “Remember that thou 
art dust, and wilt to dust return.” 

Asia, the great mass of land that con¬ 
stitutes the northeastern part of the Old 
World. The meaning of Asia is unknown. 
Belonging originally to a small city in 
Asia Minor, the term was extended by 
the Greeks to the region immediately ad¬ 
jacent, and was used finally by writers for 
the entire grand division now known by 
the name. Asia is the largest of the six 
continental divisions. The distance from 


•ASIA 


the most southwesterly part of Arabia to 
the extreme northeastern point of Siberia 
is nearly 7,000 miles. The total area is 
estimated at 17,300,000 square miles, about 
one-third of the earth’s entire land surface, 
and about one-twelfth of the entire sur¬ 
face of the globe. It is bounded by three 
oceans. The Arctic coast is the most reg¬ 
ular. The eastern coast is indented by 
five border seas, inclosed by curved chains 
of continental islands. The southern 
coast is prolonged into the three extensive 
peninsulas of Farther India, Hindustan, 
and Arabia. The entire coast line is about 
35,000 miles in length. 

Topography. The mountain systems 
of Asia are the most complex of any of 
the grand divisions. Its plateaus are the 
most elevated in the world. The Pamir 
is called, not improperly, the “roof of the 
world.” So far .as altitude is concerned, 
the Alps might be buried a mile beneath 
the mountain mass of Tibet. The Hima¬ 
layas are the loftiest chain of mountains 
in the world. Mount Everest, the culmi¬ 
nating peak, 29,002 feet, is the loftiest 
peak known. It is nearly twice as high 
as Mt. Blanc, and is a half higher than 
Mount McKinley, the highest peak of 
North America. Two of its neighbors 
are over 28,000 feet in altitude. Travelers 
desiring to penetrate this region must cross 
the ranges by means of passes from 15,- 
000 to 22,000 feet in height, a tremendous 
climb for yaks, horses, camels, or men. 

Rivers. Asia has nine great rivers, any 
one of which is larger than the Rhine and 
the Danube combined. The Obi, the Yeni¬ 
sei, and the Lena carry the icy waters of 
Siberia to the Arctic Ocean. The Amur, 
the Hoang-Ho, and the Yang-tse pour a 
yellow flood into the Pacific. The Brah¬ 
maputra, the sacred Ganges, and the Indus 
flow south to the Indian Ocean. Asia 
possesses not only the highest table-lands 
and mountains, but shares with southeast¬ 
ern Europe the greatest area of interior 
drainage and of land depression known. 
The basin occupied by the Sea of Aral and 
the Caspian is not less than 2,000,000 
square miles in extent. The surface of 
the Caspian lies eighty-three feet below 
that of the sea. 


Soil and Climate. As might be ex¬ 
pected, Asia possesses a great diversity of 
soil and climate. It has vast river plains 
of unsurpassed fertility, and extensive, 
rainless regions of drifting sands as bar¬ 
ren as the Sahara. It lies in three zones, 
the tropical, the north temperate, and 
the arctic. The flora and fauna of the 
jungles in the south are rivaled only in 
the valley of the Amazon and in equatorial 
Africa. The mountains of Central Asia 
rise into a region of cold, lifeless, eternal, 
glittering stillness. The shores of the 
Arctic Ocean are, for the most part, vast, 
tenantless, frozen tundras, with at best 
a little moss or flowers and shrubs growing 
in earth that thaws out for a few inches 
during the brief summer. Between these ex¬ 
tremes may be found every variety of soil 
and climate known on the globe. 

Population. Three of the chief divi¬ 
sions of mankind are represented in Asia. 
The Ethiopic or black division is found 
in a part of Malaysia. Southwestern Asia, 
including Arabia, and the Caspian Region, 
Persia and Afghanistan, with a large part 
of India, and a share of Siberia and Man¬ 
churia as well, are inhabited by white 
people. The eastern coast is for the most 
part occupied by inhabitants of the yellow 
race. Ignoring the black element, the en¬ 
tire population of Asia is estimated at 
280,000,000 whites and 540,000,000 of the 
yellow race, or 820,000,000—more than 
one-half the population of the world. 

Political Divisions. The following 
Asiatic countries have independent govern¬ 
ments : 

Chinese Republic. This includes China 
proper, Mongolia, East or Chinese Turk¬ 
estan and Tibet with a claim on Man¬ 
churia. 

Japan, the island empire, which in addi¬ 
tion to the large Japanese islands includes 
Formosa, Korea, and the southern half of 
Sakhalin. 

Persia, which is under some obligation 
to Great Britain because of a loan pro¬ 
vided for in 1920. Expert financial ad¬ 
vice is provided by other powers, usually 
Great Britain or the United States, but in 
the regulations of its own affairs Persia 
has complete autonomy. 



STONE CUTTERS IN JERUSALEM. 


















wt XT'S? 



NATIVES BATHING IN THE GANGES 







ASIA MINOR—ASOKA 


Afghanistan, made ndependent by a 
treaty with Great Brit n, ratified in 1921. 
This treaty for the fiist time provided for 
an interchange of diplomatic representa¬ 
tives between the two countries. 

Hedjaz, a region occupying a large por¬ 
tion of Arabia and one of the latest inde¬ 
pendent governments of the continent. It 
became independent by a treaty with 
Turkey in 1916. 

Siam, the peninsula kingdom consisting 
of seventeen provinces. 

Turkey. In the Great War Turkey lost 
nearly all of its territory but since then 
has regained most of Asia Minor. 

Arabia. See Hedjaz above. 

Syria is under a French mandatory. 

Palestine is under a British mandatory. 

Mesopotamia has a quasi-independent 
relation with Great Britain. 

The following countries are either col¬ 
onies or are governed as mandatories: 

Great Britain. The British posses¬ 
sions include India, Aden Colony and 
Protectorate, Bahrein Islands in the Per¬ 
sian Gulf, the Straits Settlements, the Fed¬ 
erated Malay States protectorate, Hong 
Kong, and adjoining territories, Weihaiwei 
in the Chinese province of Shantung, and 
Beluchistan. Palestine is administered as 
a British mandatory. 

France. The French possessions in¬ 
clude French Indo-China, Cochin China, 
Annam, Cambodia, Tonking, Laos, Kwang 
Chau Wan and Syria which is adminis¬ 
tered as a mandatory. 

Japan. The Japanene administer Kiao- 
chau as a mandatory and are tentatively 
occupying the southern portion of Sakhalin. 

Russia. The Soviet Republic controls 
Siberia which includes the northern por¬ 
tion of the continent and also the quasi¬ 
republics of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ar¬ 
menia in the southeastern part of the con¬ 
tinent. The Russian possessions are under 
the soviet form of government. 

Siberia, a region much larger than 
Europe, occupies the northern and central 
part of the continent. It formed a great 
part of the late Russian Empire. 

For a further account of Asia the reader 
is referred to the various articles on Asiatic 
countries, cities, rivers, islands, etc. 


Asia Minor, a name given by the an¬ 
cients to that portion o Asia that lies 
between the Black Sea and the eastern 
basin of the Mediterranean. The term 
means “Smaller Asia.” It is geographical, 
rather than political. Asia Minor has nev¬ 
er been an independent country or had 
a history of its own. Before the beginning 
of historical times, the Aegean coast was 
occupied by Greek colonies. The nearest 
approach to a local government was that 
of Lydia, under Croesus, 560-546 B. C. 
The cities and provinces of Asia Minor 
were conquered by Cyrus for the Persians 
and by Alexander the Great for the 
Greeks. The region has passed practical¬ 
ly without resistance under the government 
of the Romans, of the Byzantine empire, 
and the Arabs. 

In April, 1920, there was a convocation 
of a Grand National Assembly at Angora, 
under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal 
Pasha, and his associates. This Assembly 
declared itself vested with complete power, 
without throwing off allegiance to the Sul¬ 
tan. It vested its executive power in a 
body of Commissioners, forming what is 
practically a Cabinet. The Angora gov¬ 
ernment claims to be the sole lawful gov¬ 
ernment of Turkey, and exercises de facto 
all the functions of the government in the 
whole of Asia Minor not under foreign 
occupation. The Mohammedans are pre¬ 
dominant with a population before the 
Great War of 7,000,000. The total popu¬ 
lation of Asia Minor (Old Turkey) was 
10,186,900, with an area of 199,272 square 
miles. 

Aske, as'ke, in Norse mythology, the 
first man to whom Odin gave life and soul. 
Embla was the first woman. Midgard 
was their home, and from them sprang 
the whole human race. 

Asoka, a Buddhist emperor of India, 
who reigned from 264 to 228 or 227 B. C. 
His full name was Asoka Vardhana, and 
his relation to Buddhism is much the same 
as that of Constantine to Christianity. 
Though ignored in the books of the Greeks 
and the Brahmins, Asoka figures largely 
in the legends and chronicles of the Bud¬ 
dhists. He caused inscriptions to be made 
on pillars and rocks; thirty-five of these 



V/'A 


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Jl'vm 

f in] I fill 

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Pi nfr i fc*|r* 

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HANDIWORK OF ASIATIC NATIVES. 










































ASP—ASPARAGUS 


inscriptions, one of them found in 1896 on 
the spot where Buddha was supposed to 
have been born, are still in existence. The 
inscriptions are solely of a religious nature; 
for Asoka, after his conversion to Bud¬ 
dhism, became a zealot, showing constant 
concern for the welfare of man and ani¬ 
mal, and finally making Buddhism the 
state religion of his realm. Asoka was the 
most powerful and imposing of the native 
rulers of India, holding dominion over an 
empire that was as large as was India 
before the conquest of Burma. He was 
stern and cruel at the beginning of his 
reign; but after his conversion a change 
took place. He became gentle and con¬ 
siderate, watching over the material and 
spiritual welfare of his subjects, and send¬ 
ing missionaries to the far ends of his 
realm to propagate the kindly Buddhist 
religion. His memory is still revered in 
the land he once ruled. 

Asp, or Hajc, a venomous serpent of 
Egypt akin to the cobra of India. It is 
three to five feet long. Like the cobra, 
it dilates the loose folds of the neck into 
a hood. The jugglers of Cairo extract 
its fangs and teach it to dance for the 
amusement of the people. Both the asp 
and the cobra are fond of music. It is 
said that these jugglers of today can throw 
the asp into a rod-like rigor by pressing 
the nape of its neck. See Cobra ; Cleo¬ 
patra. 

Asparagus, a genus of useful and or' 
namental plants belonging to the lily fami¬ 
ly. There are about 150 species, native 
to warm or tropical regions. Southern 
Africa is noted for many beautiful species. 
Asparagus stems are finely dissected. What 
appear to be leaves are really thread-like 
branches. The branchlets of several or¬ 
namental species form feathery plumes. 
The real leaves are reduced for the most 
part to pointed scales. Some species are 
climbers; some are trailing plants; some 
are bushy. 

The common garden asparagus is a 
perennial herb native to Europe and Asia. 
The Greeks and Romans were familiar 
with asparagus. It has been cultivated 
for at least 2,000 years. It is a relative 
of the lily and the onion, but does not 


look like them. The fleshy young shoots 
are cut for table use as they peep from 
the ground. The fruit is a red berry. 
The seeds are black. The roots and ber¬ 
ries were formerly in demand as remedies. 
Asparagus is cultivated widely. It seems 
to do fairly well in the soil of almost 
any garden. Like the horseradish, once 
planted, it persists in fence corners and 
other sheltered spots. Asparagus does 
best, however, in rich, deep, mellow soil. 
Gardeners sow the seed usually in drills 
and transplant when the plants are about 
a year old. The shoots should be cut off 
daily, as soon as the tips make their ap¬ 
pearance over ground. If allowed to grow 
for a few days, they darken in color, and 
become woody. The asparagus season 
lasts “until peas come.” After that the 
shoots are allowed to grow. If the prun¬ 
ing should continue throughout the entire 
growing season, the plant would lose vi¬ 
tality. Bailey states that 12,000,000 
bunches of asparagus are sold annually by 
the market gardeners of the United States. 
The eastern centers of production are near 
the Atlantic cities, as Boston, New York, 
and Philadelphia. 

The largest asparagus plantation in the 
United States, probably the largest in the 
world, is owned by the Voorman Com' 
pany of California. It is situated on 
Baldwin Island in the San Joaquin River. 
The island, which comprises in all about 
7,000 acres, has been diked. Three thou¬ 
sand acres are under asparagus. The 
island has been fertilized by the tides for 
ages. The soil is deep and enormously 
fertile. During the asparagus season, 
which lasts from March 15th to June 
15th, 1,500 persons are employed. The 
harvesters go up and down the rows daily, 
cutting the tender shoots, just as they peep 
above the soil. It is interesting to know 
that about 50,000'acres of this marshy 
land has been reclaimed by diking and 
pumping. The region is called locally the 
Holland of America. It is destined, no 
doubt, to retain its claim as the asparagus 
center of the world. 

The sprouts of the bitter asparagus are 
very similar in appearance to the common 
asparagus, but owing to bitterness are not 


ASPASIA—ASPHALT 


edible. Many species of asparagus are 
grown for ornamental purposes in green¬ 
houses, their feathery greenness being used 
to supplement flowers in bouquets. 

Asparagus is greatly esteemed for the 
table, the first young shoots being much 
prized for their tenderness. While aspara¬ 
gus is low in food value, it is invaluable as 
an addition to other foods, and is very 
odiolesome. It may be prepared in several 
ways, b it is usually cooked, which should 
not be oo long, since that spoils its flavor. 
It is usually served hot with a butter- 
sauce, and is sometimes eaten cold as a 
salad. Whether asparagus is green or 
bland ed, is a matter of personal taste, and 
not of quality, though for ordinary pur¬ 
poses the green asparagus is most used. 
Asparagus is supposed to have medicinal 
qualities, and is used by pharmacists for 
several ailments, particularly in kidney dis¬ 
eases. It is usually made up in the form 
of pills. 

Asparagus, Diseases of. Asparagus is 
subject to several diseases, the principal one 
being a rust caused by a fungus growth. 
This disease has been prevalent in Europe, 
but did not appear in any marked degree 
in the United States until 1897, when it 
became threatening. The leaves and stems 
become covered with red blotches. Some 
varieties are less susceptible to the disease 
than others. In California, where the 
asparagus plants are attacked from time to 
time, a thorough sprinkling with sulphur 
has proven a successful remedy. 

While asparagus under cultivation is 
rarely attacked by insects, it is sometimes 
preyed upon by two small beetles, one of 
the varieties being introduced from Europe 
in 1856. As larvae, these beetles destroy 
shoots, berries and seeds, and when adult, 
they attack the growing shoots. 

Aspasia, as-pa'shi-a, a celebrated wom¬ 
an of Greece. The dates of her life are 
not known well, but she flourished during 
the so-called Age of Pericles. She was a 
native of Miletus. She appears to have 
been a woman of talent, education, and 
beauty. She removed to Athens in her 
youth. Here she attracted the attention 
of Pericles. As she was not a citizen of 
Athens, Pericles could not, under the laws 


of the city, make her his wife, but he 
lived with her as such, and made her the 
mistress of an elegant home. Like 
Madame de Stael, Aspasia made her home 
the resort of intellectual people. Anaxag¬ 
oras, the philosophical friend of Pericles, 
was a frequent visitor here. Socrates de¬ 
lighted in her wit. Phidias, the wonder¬ 
ful artist, liked to come in and talk about 
his work. Walter Savage Lanaor, who 
never allows a date to interfere with his 
saying a good thing, intimates that Thu¬ 
cydides read his history to Aspasia for 
criticism, and that the great playwriters, 
Sophocles and Aristophanes, were eager 
for her commendation. However this may 
be, the home of Pericles and Aspasia may 
be termed with justice the “intellectual 
center of Athens.” Aspasia is one of the 
few women of Greece that require mention. 
In order to understand the intellectual 
position of Aspasia, it is necessary to hold 
in mind that the women of Greece were 
educated for health and household duties 
only. It will hardly do to say of women 
who were wont to listen to the masterpieces 
of the world’s greatest tragedians, that 
they were illiterate; and yet the fact is 
that the wives of even the most eminent 
men in Greece were not taught to read 
and write. By way of exception, Aspasia 
seems to have been a truly remarkable 
woman. 

Aspen. See Poplar. 

Asphalt, as'falt, a dark, pitchy, materi¬ 
al which, according to one theory, is the 
result of decomposition of vegetable or 
animal matter. It appears to be oxidized 
petroleum. Artificial asphalt, in small 
quantities, is evolved as a by-product from 
coal in the making of illuminating gas. 
Asphalt solidifies when cold, and whether 
liquid or solid, is insoluble in water. It 
varies in color from black to a dark brown, 
but always has a strong, pitchy odor. As¬ 
phalt is found in small quantities in 
Switzerland, in eastern Scotland, in Al¬ 
sace, in Mesopotamia. Asphalt springs 
occur abundantly on the shores of the 
Dead Sea, where it is known to the Arabs 
as Moses’ stone. The greater part of the 
western world’s supply of asphalt, how¬ 
ever, is obtained from the island of Trini- 


ASPHALT 


dad, where a large pitch lake occurs. This 
lake is about half a mile in diameter and 
is supposed to be eighty feet deep. Around 
the shores, the surface is covered with 
hardened asphalt, but the center is hot and 
steaming. When the wind blows away 
from shore, the crusty asphalt is broken 
into pieces and is sent down to ships in 
the harbor by means of buckets running 
on an overhead cable. 

An American company has obtained 
possession of an asphalt lake at Bermu¬ 
dez, Venezuela. This lake is two miles 
wide. The crusty asphalt is quarried like 
ice. Liquid asphalt rises as fast as the 
blocks are removed. 

The most important use of asphalt at 
the present time is for street paving, and 
cities like Detroit, Mich., and Washington, 
D. C., are particularly noted for their 
asphalt roads. The use of asphalt for this 
purpose dates back to 1838, when side¬ 
walks were laid in Paris with a variety of 
asphaltic limestone obtained from Switzer¬ 
land and the lower Rhone valley. This 
was a natural mixture of bitumen with a 
large quantity of mineral matter, of which 
large deposits have been found in France, 
Switzerland, Sicily, and Germany; and 
most of the asphalt paving in Europe has 
been done with this material. It contains 
from 5 to 15 per cent of bitumen, or suf¬ 
ficient to cause the rock, when powdered 
and heated, to soften somewhat, so that it 
can be used, in the form of heated powder, 
for laying pavements, which speedily 
harden. In the United States a similar 
deposit of asphaltic limestone is found in 
Uvalde county, Texas. This is of fossil 
character, contains from 15 to 25 per cent 
of bitumen, and is used in commerce, when 
extracted, for a variety of purposes under 
the name of “lithocarbon,” especially ill 
the manufacture of insulating material. 

The asphalt paving composition used 
generally in the United States contains 
about 15 per cent of a refined solid Trin¬ 
idad asphalt mixture, including petroleum 
residue, to which is added from 60 to 70 
per cent of clean sand and then 10 to 25 
per cent of pulverized limestone. This 
makes the surface coating for the pave¬ 
ment, which is usually laid upon a con¬ 


crete foundation, then smoothed and rolled 
by steam rollers. This form of paving is 
known as sheet asphalt, the composition 
being spread so as to make large continu¬ 
ous sheets. Another kind is asphalt block 
paving, in which asphalt blocks are first 
made by machinery, from crushed stone 
and refined solid asphalt. Still another 
form of asphalt paving, largely used for 
sidewalks, basements, outhouses, etc., is 
known as “mastic” and is made of as¬ 
phaltic limestone, with which about 8 per 
cent by weight of refined Trinidad asphalt 
is mixed, heated, and cast into blocks. 
Before laying the sidewalk or floor these 
blocks are broken up and again heated 
with the addition of a mixture of refined 
asphalt and petroleum residue, then mixed 
with sand and fine gravel and poured hot 
upon the prepared foundation, spread 
evenly and smoothed with wooden imple¬ 
ments. 

It will be noted that petroleum residue 
is mixed with Trinidad asphalt for paving 
purposes. This residue is known and sold 
as artificial asphalt, to distinguish it from 
nature’s product. It is a by-product of the 
great oil refineries. After the lighter 
products of the petroleum, such as gaso¬ 
line, etc., have been separated and removed, 
the black, pitchlike remainder goes into 
use as artificial asphalt. This substance 
lacks the durability of the natural product, 
but is combined with the latter for paving 
purposes to lessen the cost of asphalt roads. 
In such a combination the natural asphalt 
acts as a binder and prevents the pave¬ 
ment from becoming brittle, breaking, and 
crumbling, as would be the case if the 
artificial asphalt alone were incorporated 
with sand and stone. 

In its crude state Trinidad asphalt, or 
“lake pitch,” as it is sometimes called, con¬ 
tains about 40 per cent of bitumen, 34 per 
cent of earthy matter, 9.3 per cent of or¬ 
ganic matter, and 16.5 per cent of water. 
After refining the water is eliminated and 
the proportion of bitumen is raised to 
about 60 per cent. Some of the refining 
is done on the island of Trinidad, but 
most of the asphalt intended for the 
United States is refined in great works at 
Maurer, N. J. The crude asphalt is placed 


ASPHODEL-ASSASSINS 


in large rectangular tanks, each of one 
hundred tons capacity. Here it is sub¬ 
jected to steam heat conveyed to the tanks 
at a pressure of 125 pounds and about 325 
degrees Fahrenheit. This process removes 
the water and melts the asphalt, which is 
also well stirred up by live steam passing 
through it in the tank, so that most of the 
impurities and all foreign substances are 
removed. The melted asphalt is then 
drawn off from the tanks into barrels, 
where it again solidifies, and this is the 
refined asphalt used in paving. Solid 
bitumens similar to asphalt include gil- 
sonite and grahamite, gilsonite being found 
in large quantities in Utah and used for 
coating roofing material and making var¬ 
nishes, while grahamite is used for making 
varnishes and insulators. 

See Trinidad. 

Asphodel, as'fo-del, a plant of the lily 
kind. It is known also as king’s-spear. 
There is some confusion in the use of the 
name. The common asphodel of the an¬ 
cients, the asphodel of Greek mythology, 
is a handsome plant growing from a clus¬ 
ter of fleshy roots to a height of from two 
to four feet. The leaves are long, rough 
edged, and pointed. They cling closely to 
the stalk. The blossom is of a pallid 
yellow color. Among the Greeks the as¬ 
phodel was the peculiar flower of the dead. 
Homer speaks of the shades of heroes con¬ 
gregated in the asphodel meadows of 
Hades. 

The banks of asphodel that border the river 
of life.—Holmes, Autocrat. 

Two angels, one of Life and one of Death, 
Passed o’er our village as the morning broke; 
But one was crowned with amaranth, as with 
flame, 

And one with asphodels, like flakes of light. 

—Longfellow, The Two Angels. 

Asquith, Herbert Henry (1852- ), 

an English statesman who was Prime Min¬ 
ister during an extremely critical period in 
British history. He was bom at Morley, 
Yorkshire, England. He was graduated 
from Oxford in 1874, and was admitted 
to the bar two years later. In 1892, he 
became Secretary for Home Affairs in 
Gladstone’s last ministry, and from 1895 
to 1905 was the spokesman of the Rose- 
berry Liberal Imperalists, supporters of 


the government during the South African 
War. He opposed Mr. Chamberlain on the 
question of tariff reform, and became 
Chancellor of the Exchequer after the 
Liberal victory of 1905. While in this 
position, he introduced the Old Age Pen¬ 
sion Bill, which later passed intQ law. In 
1905, Mr. Asquith succeeded Campbell- 
Bannerman as Prime Minister. After the 
outbreak of the Great War, Mr. Asquith’s 
cabinet passed through several crises. In 
1915, he was forced to form a national 
coalition ministry, but in 1916 the coalition 
fell. Asquith was a Member of Parlia¬ 
ment in 1917, 1918, and 1920. In 1918 
he published his Occasional Addresses. 

Ass, a useful, homely member of the 
horse family, most closely akin to the ze¬ 
bra. It has long ears, a short mane, a 
shaggy coat, and a long-haired tail. The 
domestic donkey is supposed to be a na¬ 
tive of Africa, possibly of Abyssinia. It 
was domesticated first in Egypt where it 
is still the burden carrier tf Cairo and 
Alexandria. The donkey is slow, patient, 
homely, and is the type of obstinacy and 
stupidity; but its ability to live on coarse 
fare and its surefootedness among the 
mountains render it a valuable domestic 
and pack animal. Its use is general in 
the Levant. 

See Mule. 

Assassins, originally an order of re¬ 
ligious fanatics, founded in Persia, about 
the year 1090. According to the tenets 
of their belief, their chief was inhabited 
by the Holy Ghost, and received his or¬ 
ders direct from the deity. Each member 
held himself bound to carry out the orders 
of his chief, and to put to death anyone 
obnoxious to the order. The name means 
hashish-eater, and is derived from a habit 
of exciting the members to murder by 
means of the drug hashish. The chief 
seat of the order was transferred to Mt. 
Lebanon, but their emissaries were sent 
everywhere, and spread terror throughout 
Christendom. They were exceedingly ex¬ 
pert in the use of poisoned daggers, cords, 
and noiseless air guns. Their religion was 
a mixture of Judaism, Mohammedism, 


ASSAYING—ASSESSOR 


Christianity, and the magic of the East. 
At their height, they were able, it is said, 
to oppose 50,000 troops to the Crusaders. 
A small remnant still remains, now char¬ 
acterized by piety, kindly manners, and 
poverty. The term has been extended to 
anyone who deliberately takes human life 
in a stealthy manner. Among the nota¬ 
ble assassinations of public men, the fol¬ 
lowing may be mentioned: 

Philip of Macedon .B. C. 366 

Julius Caesar.Mar. 15, B. C. 44 

Thomas a Becket .Dec. 29, A. D. 1170 

Lord Darnley .Feb. 10, 1567 

William of Orange .July 10, 1584 

Henry IV of France .May 14, 1610 

Wallenstein .Feb. 25, 1634 

Archbishop Sharp .May 3, 1679 

Marat .July 13, 1793 

Paul, Czar of Russia.Mar. 24, 1801 

President Lincoln .April 15, 1865 

Alexander II of Russia.Mar. 13, 1881 

King Humbert of Italy.July 29, 1900 

President McKinley ..Sept. 6. D. Sept. 14, 1901 
Arch Duke Francis Ferdinand of Austria 

.July 28. 1914 

Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson. June 22, 1922 

Walter Rathenau.June 24, 1922 

Michael Collins.Aug. 22, 1922 

See Nihilists; Thugs. 

Assaying, the process of determining 
the quantity of metal, as gold, silver, cop¬ 
per, iron, or lead, present in a given quan¬ 
tity of ore or alloy. In mining countries 
assaying is a very important business. One 
contemplating buying a mine secures sam¬ 
ples of ore from different places in the 
vein, and takes them to an assayer to find 
out how much gold or silver or copper, 
as the case may be, the ore will yield 
to the ton. Miners desiring to sell ores 
submit them to the company’s assayer to 
determine their value per ton. 

Three methods of assaying are in com¬ 
mon use, the wet, the dry, and the streak 
method. In the wet method, the precious 
metal is separated by means of acids; in 
the dry method, grinding and heating are 
relied upon. In both of these methods, 
the weight of the button of precious metal 
finally obtained is compared with the 
amount of ore assayed. The streak meth¬ 
od is employed in testing the fineness of 
silver plate or of other articles which 
would be damaged by detaching a piece of 


the metal. It consists in rubbing the ar¬ 
ticle on a rough surface, especially that 
of the touchstone, and producing a streak, 
from the appearance of which experts are 
able to determine the fineness of the al¬ 
loy. In Great Britain articles of gold 
or silver are tested in this way and stamped 
with an official hall-mark by the Gold¬ 
smiths’ Company, denoting the place, date, 
and fineness of the manufacture. In this 
way the British public may know what it 
is buying. 

The assay offices of the United States 
are located at New York; Charlotte, 
N. C.; Deadwood, S. D.; Helena, Mont.; 
Boise, Idaho; Salt Lake City, Utah; Car- 
son, Nev.; New Orleans, La.; Seattle, 
Wash.; and at the coinage mints of Phila¬ 
delphia, San Francisco, and Denver. The 
New York Assay Office receives and refines 
more gold bullion than any of the mints, 
but the assay offices produce no coin. They 
report the assay of gold or silver ores in 
Troy ounces per ton of 2,000 pounds; and 
of gold or silver bullion in fineness or the 
number of parts of metal in 1,000 parts 
of bullion. The offices are public and as¬ 
says of jewelry are made for a nominal 
charge. Jewelers report the fineness of 
their products in karats, or the number of 
parts of gold in 24. Thus gold jewelry 
marked 18-karat should contain 75 per cent 
of gold, or should be 750 fine. Gold and 
silver are purchased for the government at 
the assay offices, gold at the fixed price of 
$20.67 per ounce, and silver at the market 
price, which fluctuates. See Gold; Sil¬ 
ver ; Mint. 

Assessor, in the United States, a local 
officer charged with the duty of preparing 
a schedule of property and owners.' An 
assessor’s schedule should show the name 
and residence of each property owner, and 
also the kind, quantity, and value of all 
property within the district, whether held 
by resident or absent owners. The work 
of the assessor is preparatory to determin¬ 
ing the amount of tax to be paid by each 
property owner, and needs to be done with 
care and impartiality. The work of the 
local assessors is reviewed usually by a 
county board charged with the responsi¬ 
bility of seeing that the same kind of prep- 


















ASSIGNMENT—ASSYRIA 


erty is given the same value in different 
localities. A state board of equalization, 
or a tax commission, reviews the work by 
counties to secure uniformity of values in 
all parts of the state. 

Assignment. See Bankruptcy. 

Assimilation, the selection of food ma¬ 
terial for the growth of organic tissues 
which takes place within the cells. It is 
the final step following digestion and ab¬ 
sorption, by which the food becomes living 
substance. It is perhaps needless to say 
that the details and exact nature of the 
process are not understood. 

Assin'iboin, the name of a tribe of 
Sioux Indians. There are now about 3,000 
of them, nearly equally divided between 
northern Montana and adjacent parts of 
Canada. 

The river bearing their name flows east¬ 
ward through Manitoba into the Red Riv¬ 
er about forty miles above Lake Winni¬ 
peg. The Assiniboin is about equal to the 
Rhone in length and is navigable for flat 
bottomed steamers for a distance of 300 
miles above its mouth. It is well known 
in the annals of the fur trade. Its ex¬ 
tensive, fertile plains were once occupied 
by herds of buffalo, from which the In¬ 
dians obtained their chief supply of food, 
tents, and clothing. 

Only, at times, a smoke-wreath 

With the drifting cloud-rack joins,— 

The smoke of the hunting-lodges 
Of the wild Assiniboins. 

—Whittier, The Red River Voyageur. 

Associated Press, a cooperative or¬ 
ganization of newspapers with the purpose 
of collecting the news. To save the indi¬ 
vidual paper the enormous expense of gath¬ 
ering the world’s news single-handed, this 
association maintains an agent in practical¬ 
ly every city. This agent telegraphs news 
to one of the central bureaus, which, in 
turn, transmits it to all the papers in the 
membership, or such portions of it as each 
desires. Any reputable newspaper may 
join the association by paying its weekly 
share of the expense, unless a competing 
paper published in the same town and 
already a member objects. As first formed 
in 1848 it was an arrangement among 
seven New York city papers. There are 


two large rival organizations in the United 
States. A corresponding means of gath¬ 
ering important news in Europe is called 
Reuter’s Agency. The chief aim of the 
Associated Press is the promotion of ef¬ 
ficiency and economy in gathering news. 
While its service is, on the whole, excel¬ 
lent, it burdens the wires with a vast mass 
of trivialities and wearisome repetitions 
and elaborations that are a source of an¬ 
noyance to the genuine newspaper man. 
It has also been charged with coloring 
its reports at the suggestion of great in¬ 
terests involved. In the case of a measure 
before Congress, as, for instance, the ship 
subsidy, the charge is made that news on 
that subject is distorted to create sentiment 
in favor of, or to remove objections to the 
measure. In the case of a corporation 
charged with appropriating state timber, 
it is possible for a powerful political clique 
to induce reporters to withhold damaging 
facts and statements. 

Assouan Dam. See Nile. 

Assyria, an ancient empire of Asia. 
The region known historically as Assyria 
lies on the Tigris River, above Chaldea 
or Babylonia. Nineveh is the historical 
capital. The original Assyrians are be¬ 
lieved to have been related to the present 
Finns and Turks, but they were overpow¬ 
ered and assimilated by the Semites’. The 
later historical Assyrians were large, 
hook-nosed, black hqired people of Jew¬ 
ish aspect and relationship. In the arts 
and sciences they were pupils of the Baby¬ 
lonians. Nineveh was an imitation of 
Babylon. About 1300 B. C. Assyria be¬ 
came a rival of Babylonia. In 745 B. C. 
the Assyrian Empire took form, and rap¬ 
idly became the leading power of the 
world. Babylon was overthrown. Egypt 
was made a tributary province and the Ten 
Tribes of Israel were carried into cap¬ 
tivity. New roads were built and old roads 
were diverted to center at Nineveh. Sol¬ 
diers and military posts protected- traffic 
in every direction. The caravan trade of 
the world was centered at the Assyrian 
capital. In 606 B. C. the Medes, a new 
power, arose. The Assyrian Empire and 
proud Nineveh disappeared. The leading 
Assyrian monarchs were Tiglath-Pileser, 


ASSYRIAN LITERATURE—ASTOR 


Sargon, and Sennacherib. See Nineveh; 
Babylon; Cuneiform Writing. 

Assyrian Literature. See Litera¬ 
ture. 

Aster (a star), an autumn flower of 
great beauty. Gray recognized fifty-four 
different asters east of the 100th meridian 
and north of the southern line of Virginia. 
Our Rocky Mountain region is full of 
them. Britton and Brown’s Flora gives 
the number of species of asters as not less 
than 250, chiefly North American. Eng¬ 
land has but one aster, a salt marsh plant. 
China and Japan have many. One from 
far off Van Diemen’s Land smells of musk. 
Most species are perennial herbs. A few 
are shrubby. American asters are of many 
colors and sizes. They belong to the com¬ 
posite family. What seems a flower is 
really a large number of flowers in a 
head. Close examination will show a large 
number of small flowers in the center, 
with an outer row of showy strap- 
shaped flowers, always of some other col¬ 
or. Our garden asters are from China. 
They are not true asters, but are near 
relatives. Asters are late flowers to bloom. 
They are exceedingly welcome in the sere 
days of autumn. Bryant in his Death of 
the Flowers speaks of them: 

But on the hills the golden-rod, and the aster 
in the wood, 

And the yellow sunflower by the brook in au¬ 
tumn beauty stood, 

Till fell the frost from the clear, cold heaven, 
as falls the plague on men. 

And the brightness of their smile was gone, from 
upland, glade, and glen. 

Asteroids, small planets traveling be¬ 
tween Mars and Jupiter. Kepler, and 
after him others, suggested that a planet 
might naturally be looked for in the wide 
gap between Mars and Jupiter. The dis¬ 
covery of Uranus in a similar gap led 
to the formation of an association of 
twenty-four astronomers who subdivided 
the zone in question and began a care¬ 
ful search for the expected planet. 
January 1, 1801, an Italian astronomer, 
Piazzi, discovered a very small planet 
which he called Ceres. A little over a 
year later Pallas was found in the same 
locality. Two years later Juno, and 
three years later again, Vesta were discov¬ 


ered. So many have been found since, that 
Grecian mythology has been pretty well 
ransacked for names, and a circle with an 
inclosed figure is now the astronomer’s 
nomenclature. The number of asteroids 
has passed five hundred. In place, 
then, of the expected planet, a host of 
fragments have been found, as though a 
world had exploded; but we may add 
that the paths of these little planets have 
no point of intersection such as might 
have been expected had they originated 
in the break-up of a large body. The 
bulk of the asteroids all put together is 
less than that of the moon. They 
range from ten to one hundred miles in 
diameter. They are so small and their 
attraction of gravitation so slight that it 
is thought that a pebble flung with very 
ordinary force from any one of them would 
never fall to the surface again. Professor 
Young states that the orbits of the aster¬ 
oids so cross and interlink that, if they 
were material hoops or rings, the lifting of 
one would take all the others with it. 

Asthma, a disorder of the breathing 
apparatus. It is a nervous disease, result¬ 
ing in a spasmodic contraction of the 
muscles of the bronchial tubes. When the 
muscles contract, the tubes are so nearly 
closed as to interfere with the process of 
breathing, and produce a characteristic 
wheezing noise. The shortness of breath 
and violent coughing are very distressing 
and are difficult to relieve. Rest and 
the inhaled smoke of cubebs are recom¬ 
mended by physicians. 

Astig'matism, a defect of vision, due 
to a difference in curvature of the lens of 
the eye in various planes, which prevents 
one from seeing lines in those planes with 
equal distinctness though they may be 
equally distant from the eye. Any one may 
make a simple test for astigmatism by 
looking at black lines radiating from a 
center; if, for instance, the vertical lines 
appear much more distinct than the hori¬ 
zontal ones, the error in curvature may be 
corrected by glasses. 

Astor, John Jacob (1763-1848), an 
enterprising American fur merchant. He 
was a native of Walldorf, near Heidel¬ 
berg, Germany. The name, Americanized 


ASTRAKHAN 


by dropping out one 1, has been given to 
various members of the family and is 
commemorated in the Waldorf, or rather 
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York 
City. Astor’s boyhood days were spent 
laboring on a farm with his peasant fa¬ 
ther. At the age of sixteen he joined a 
brother in London, and engaged in the 
making of musical instruments. At twen¬ 
ty he came to New York and, through the 
advice of a fur merchant, engaged in that 
business. He gradually established fur 
trading posts throughout the Missouri re¬ 
gion, at many points in the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, and as far west as the mouth of 
the Columbia, where a trading post was 
named Astoria in his honor. Washington 
Irving has given a good account of this 
enterprise in his Astoria. Astor being a 
man of thrift, ability, and foresight, made 
a vast fortune which he increased by judi¬ 
cious investments in New York City real 
estate. This real estate is the basis of 
the present wealth of the Astor family. 
A very considerable portion of his fortune 
was left for various charitable purposes. 
Fifty thousand dollars went to the poor 
of his native village, Walldorf. A be¬ 
quest of $400,000 was left to build the 
Astor Public Library, which stands on 
Lafayette Square. Washington Irving was 
the first president of the board of man¬ 
agement. The endowment has been in¬ 
creased by liberal gifts from other mem¬ 
bers of the family. 

William B. (1792-1875), a son of 
the John Jacob known as “the landlord 
of New York,” amassed a fortune of $30,- 
000,000. He added $600,000 to the funds 
of the Astor Library. William Waldorf 
Astor, a great-grandson of the first Astor, 
in 1890 inherited a fortune of $200,- 
000,000, and removed to London, where 
he bought the Pall-Mall Gazette. In 1899 
he renounced his allegiance to the United 
States. He virtually bought a title and 
seat in the English House of Lords. He 
died in 1919. 

Astoria, Ore., founded in 1811 as a fur 
trading post by John Jacob Astor, was the 
first settlement in the Columbia River val¬ 
ley. At Astoria is Fort Clatsop, estab¬ 
lished in 1805 by the Lewis and Clark 


Expedition. The English gained posses¬ 
sion of the fort in 1813 and renamed it 
Fort St. George, holding it until 1818. 
But the Northwest Company, English fur 
traders, occupied it until 1845. It is now 
a modern city, the county seat of Clatsop 
Co. It is on the south bank of the Colum¬ 
bia River, 100 miles northwest of Portland. 
It is the center of an extensive fishing and 
canning industry, and also controls a large 
export trade in lumber, wheat and flour. 

On December 8, 1922, a disastrous fire, 
which destroyed forty' blocks, swept the 
city. The whole business section as v T ell 
as attractive portions of the residential sec¬ 
tions were completely destroyed. This was 
the most disastrous fire which occurred on 
the Pacific Coast since the San Francisco 
disaster. Population, 14,021. 

Astraea, in Greek mythology, the daugh¬ 
ter of Zeus and Themis, and goddess of 
justice. During the golden age she dwelt 
on earth, but was placed among the stars, 
where she forms the constellation Virgo. 
The name was given to one of the asteroids, 
discovered in 1845. It revolves around the 
sun in 1,511.10 solar days, and is about 
2V 2 times the distance of the earth from 
the sun. 

Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, dwells on 
Astraea, the “star maiden,” and how she 
grieved over the wickedness of men 

Astrakhan, as-tra-kan', a chief city of 
the Volga basin. It is situated about thir¬ 
ty miles above the entrance of that river 
into the Caspian Sea. It is a dirty, ill¬ 
smelling city, with crooked, broad streets 
and irregular rows of houses. A cathe¬ 
dral is the only edifice of importance. A 
number of bridges span the river. As¬ 
trakhan carries on an immense trade in 
fish, caviare, and isinglass. The number 
of people engaged in the Caspian fisheries 
which have their center at Astrakhan is 
variously estimated at from fifteen to thir¬ 
ty thousand persons. There are also im¬ 
portant manufactures of silks, woolens, 
cottons, soap, morocco leather, and sha¬ 
green. The curly, woolly sheepskins of 
Persia and Syria are called astrakhan from 
the fact that the pelts, tanned and ready 
for making overcoats and other garments, 
were obtained originally from this city. 


J 


ASTRAKHAN—ASTROLOGY 


Population, 163,800. See Caspian ; Stur¬ 
geon. 

Astrakhan, as'tra-kan, a name given to 
the skins of a species of Russian sheep, 
the distinguishing characteristics of which 
are short, fine, soft, closely curled wool. 
The skins which form the fur used for 
coats, sacques, muffs, etc., are from 
young lambs reared in the mountain¬ 
ous districts of Astrakhan. Astrakhan 
cloth is woven in much the same way as 
velvet or plush. An extra pile-warp of 
lustrous wool or mohair is added to a sin¬ 
gle cloth. If the curly effect of the real 
wool is desired, this warp or pile which is 
to form the face of the finished fabric is 
crimped or twisted before weaving. This 
crimping is done by machinery, and is 
“set” or made permanent by a steaming 
process. These crimped threads are then 
woven over wires in the form of loops, 
which are cut, or left uncut, according 
to the effect desired. Sometimes part of 
the loops are cut and a part left uncut, 
producing a variety of novelties for cloak¬ 
ings and other purposes. See Fur. 

Astrology, the study of the alleged 
influence of the stars and other heavenly 
bodies on the life and destiny of . persons. 
Thus a person born under the influence 
of Mercury had a mercurial temperament; 
if brought into the world when Jupiter 
was ascendant, he had a jovial disposition. 
From time immemorial the Chinese, Egyp¬ 
tians, Chaldeans, Greeks, and Romans 
were subject to the grossest delusions of 
this sort. On the supposition that the 
earth stood still while the heavens re¬ 
volved, the rising and setting of the va¬ 
rious stars was a great mystery. If the 
sky were full of charioteers, gods, ser¬ 
pents, animals, nymphs, bowmen, water¬ 
men, warriors, etc., as the names of the 
constellations would imply, it is no great 
wonder that they should be thought to 
have an influence dire or propitious, and 
that people without scientific knowledge 
should consider rain, drouth, plenty, fam¬ 
ine, war, pestilence, health, disease, 
friends, enemies, life, and death, the heav¬ 
en-sent gifts of the inhabitants with whom 
their imagination filled the sky. Even the 
Jews, the early Christians, and the schol¬ 


arly Arabians, who had a more correct 
notion of the stars, still thought the heav¬ 
enly bodies in their courses had a power¬ 
ful influence on the destinies of the human 
race. 

The medieval astrologer divided the 
heavens into twelve regions by as many 
lines or meridians running from pole to 
pole. These twelve regions or spaces w r ere 
called houses. Named in order, they were 
the houses of life, riches, brethren, par¬ 
ents, children, health, marriage, death, re¬ 
ligion, dignities, friends, and enemies. 
The house just below the horizon at the 
hour of one’s birth was said to be ascend¬ 
ant or rising, and had the greatest influ¬ 
ence. Each house was ruled by a power¬ 
ful star. The stars and houses in the 
eastern horizon at the moment of birth 
were therefore of the utmost importance. 
The astrologers, it was believed, under¬ 
stood these influences and could cast the 
horoscope of an infant. By knowing the 
date and hour of birth they could work 
backward and determine, for instance, 
whether the house of war. was for or 
against one. 

Astrologers were persons of influence. 
They received large fees and gifts for 
their services. It is not difficult to under¬ 
stand how the grossest deception may have 
been practiced. A pretended astrologer 
in the service Of a court might be the 
emissary of a foreign power sent for the 
very purpose of ingratiating himself that 
he might give readings calculated to lead 
his dupes into making blunders in war¬ 
fare and statecraft. 

It is difficult to realize that a large part 
of the time of the learned was devoted 
at one time to astrology and to alchemy, 
and that both had so strong a hold, not 
merely on the common people, but on the 
wisest men of medieval times. Astrology 
bears the same relation to astronomy that 
alchemy holds to the science of chemistry. 
It passed away with the acceptance of cor¬ 
rect views regarding the daily rotation of 
the earth on its axis. 

Some of the savage tribes of Asia and 
Africa are said to believe in a rude as¬ 
trology still. Many once popular notions 
still linger, as that Friday is an unlucky 


ASTRONOMY 


day for a journey, and that a rainy day 
is unlucky for a wedding. Some people 
think it useless, to plant melon seeds ex¬ 
cept at certain time of the moon; others 
cannot make soft soap unless the moon is 
right. 

Our vocabulary is indebted to astrology 
for many familiar words. To consider 
originally meant to view or study the stars. 
A disaster is the stroke of an evil star. A 
disastrous battle is due to an unfavorable 
star. A saturnine disposition is unde.r the 
influence of Saturn. A lunatic is a moon¬ 
struck person. In Judges v: 20, we learn 
that “The stars in their courses fought 
against Sisera.” Job asks, “Canst thou bind 
the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose 
the bands of Orion?” Napoleon believed 
in his star. The star of peace, an evil 
star, one’s lucky star, the star of empire, 
are familiar expressions inherited from the 
astrologer. 

A number of popular sayings connected 
with the month of the year have their 
origin, in all probability, in the old prac¬ 
tice of astrology. Thus a girl born in 
January is likely to be prudent; in Febru¬ 
ary, affectionate; in March quarrelsome; 
in April, fickle; in May, happy; in June, 
impetuous; in July, sulky; in August, prac¬ 
tical ; in September, popular; in October, 
coquettish; in November, kind; in Decem¬ 
ber, extravagant. An old adage thus lays 
down the proper days for wedlock: Mon¬ 
day for wealth; Tuesday for health; 
Wednesday the best day of all; Thursday 
for crosses; Friday for losses; Saturday no 
luck at all. 

Astronomy, the science of the heavenly 
bodies. Although astronomy in its present 
state of exactitude is of comparatively 
recent development, as the world goes, we 
have good evidence that the priests of 
Egypt had mapped out the stars into con¬ 
stellations and had divided the zodiac into 
twelve signs, as early as 3,000 B. C. Thus 
our oldest astronomical records are older 
than our oldest known code of laws, which 
dates from the time of Hammurabi, about 
2250 B. C. The Babylonians and Chal¬ 
deans were astronomers of a sort, since the 
Greeks, Thales and Pythagoras in par¬ 
ticular, credit them with astronomical 


knowledge. Pythagoras (582 B. C.), 
Ptolemy (150 B. C.), and many others 
among the ancients contributed somewhat 
to our knowledge of the heavens. Ptolemy, 
it is true, left a record of rather negative 
accomplishment, since his theory that the 
earth was the center of the universe around 
which the sun, moon and stars revolved 
was accepted for fourteen centuries by the 
Christian church and was the basis of al¬ 
most all the persecution heaped upon such 
later investigators as Copernicus and Gali¬ 
leo. It was Copernicus, a Pole (1473- 
1543), who first showed that the sun is 
the center of our universe. Galileo, an 
Italian, (1564-1642), invented what was 
the first really practical telescope, and it 
was he who greatly developed the theories 
of Copernicus. No list of the astronomers 
is complete without the names of Tycho 
Brahe (1546-1601), the Dane; Johann 
Kepler (1571-1630), the German, and 
Laplace (1749-1827), a Frenchman, who 
propounded the nebular hypothesis. With 
the mention of Sir Isaac Newton (1642- 
1727), discoverer of the law of gravitation, 
the list of those who were preeminent in 
the field of early astronomical investiga¬ 
tion is completed. 

After astronomy had attained the dig¬ 
nity of a science among the learned men 
of Europe, it was rapidly developed. Ever 
larger and more powerful telescopes aid in 
mapping the heavens accurately; the de¬ 
velopment of astronomical mathematics ad¬ 
vanced our knowledge of stellar speeds and 
distances; and lately, by means of the 
spectroscope and photographic negative, 
still greater knowledge of the heavens has 
been gained. Yet one man of science says 
in a recent work: 

The picture of the Universe that the astron¬ 
omer offers us is imperfect; the lines he traces 
are often faint and uncertain. There are many 
problems that have been solved, there are just 
as many about which there is doubt, and not¬ 
withstanding our great increase in knowledge, 
there remain just as many that are entirely 
unsolved. 

Since, however, the worth of science is 
calculated by the accomplishments it shows, 
a list of the accomplishments of the science 
of astronomy is interesting. Of the prob¬ 
lems that have been solved, wholly or in 
part, the most important are the problem 


ASTRONOMY 


of world origins, now generally explained 
by the nebular hypothesis, which says that 
a heavenly body is formed by the con¬ 
densation of a nebula; the composition of 
heavenly bodies, as the sun, in which the 
element helium was discovered twenty years 
before it was found on the earth; the com¬ 
parative ages of the stars and planets; the 
analysis of light, with the spectroscope; 
the fairly accurate calculation of planetary 
distances; the problem of photographing 
stars, comets, nebulae and planets; and the 
fascinating problem of there being life on 
other planets, as Mars. 

Nebulae. A nebula is a dimly lumin¬ 
ous patch in the heavens that resembles 
somewhat a thin wisp of smoke. Nebulae 
are composed of gases that are so rarified 
that the residual gas in a vacuum is dense 
in comparison. The distances from the 
earth of some of these nebulae are known, 
but their exact dimensions are not known, 
though they are known to be enormously 
large. Nor is it known what causes their 
luminosity. It is from these nebulae, by a 
process of condensation accompanied by a 
rotary motion, that astronomers suppose 
stars to be born. Their contentions are 
supported by the fact that some of the 
nebulae that have been photographed have 
distinct semi-solid cores—the nuclei of 
future stars. 

The nebular theory, however, is no longer 
acceptable in its entirety to some astron¬ 
omers, who modify it by holding that the 
solar system was formed from a spiral 
nebula composed of gas but carrying with 
it innumerable solid bodies called planet- 
esimals, which, gathering together, formed 
into planets and their satellites. 

Composition of Heavenly Bodies. It 
was through their luminosity, by means of 
the spectroscope, that the elements compos¬ 
ing the sun and stars were determined. 
Every metal, when so heated that it be¬ 
comes incandescent, emits light; and each 
metal displays its own distinctive color. 
So-called white light, when passed through 
the spectroscope, is broken up into many 
colors, corresponding to the substances or 
substances from which it emanates. It 
was thus that helium was discovered in the 
sun. 


Comparative Ages of Stars. The 
comparative ages of stars are determined 
in a somewhat similar manner. The stars 
are roughly divided according to color into 
red, yellow and white stars. These are the 
colors to be seen in any metal in the process 
of heating, and in the process of cooling. 
It appears that when a star is first formed 
it is not very hot, and that it glows dully 
red; as it grows hotter and tends toward 
yellow, it contracts. At the white-hot 
point, heating ceases but contraction con¬ 
tinues. Still further contraction accom¬ 
panies the cooling process; and when the 
star is so cool that it is again red, it is much 
smaller than when it was first red. The 
red stars are therefore divided into two 
classes, giants and dwarfs. The giants are 
the youngest and the dwarfs the oldest 
stars. Their formation is generally ex¬ 
plained on the nebular theory. 

Planetary Distances. The develop¬ 
ment of instruments and of mathematics for 
the measurement of planetary distances and 
speeds is one of the highest triumphs of 
astronomy, but the subject is so technical 
that many volumes would be required for 
its complete elucidation. 

A recently perfected method of calcu¬ 
lating planetary distances has brought out 
the fact that Betelgeuse, the brightest star 
in the constellation Orion, is more than 
four hundred millions of millions of miles 
distant from the earth. Light, which has 
a speed of 186,000 miles a second, requires 
seventy years to travel from Betelgeuse to 
the earth. The distances of other stars may 
be calculated with equal exactitude by the 
same method. 

Photography. Heavenly bodies are 
photographed and charted with the aid of 
the telescope. It was long since learned 
that the photographic plate records more 
accurately what the telescope sees than does 
the human eye; and that by long exposure, 
the plate will so accumulate faint impres¬ 
sions as to give a clear final picture, a feat 
impossible for the human eye to accomplish. 

With such a telescope as the one on 
Mount Wilson, California—the largest and 
most powerful telescope in the world— a 
body like the moon can, in a sense, be 
brought to within about fifty miles of the 


ASYLUM—ASYLUM, RIGHT OF 


earth. At this distance a Zeppelin would 
be detected as a moving speck against the 
moon’s surface, and a city the size of Lon¬ 
don would appear as a dark sprawling spot 
on the globe. It is of the moon that per¬ 
haps the best photographs have been made. 

Life on Other Planets. Since the 
time when the doctrine of evolution became 
current intellectual coin, speculation has 
been rife as to the existence of life in some 
form on other planets, notably Venus and 
Mars. By the writers of Martian romances, 
“life” has always been made synonymous 
with “human life” as we on earth know it. 
More careful investigators, however, do not 
allow any such synonymity ; for animal life 
depends for its support, finally, on vege¬ 
table life, while the latter depends only 
upon certain elements derived from the soil 
and the air; and good evidence of vegetable 
life on other planets is not forthcoming. 
Those who, on the other hand, deny cate¬ 
gorically the possibility of there being some 
form of life on other planets because of 
the assumed absence of the conditions neces¬ 
sary for the support of life as we know it, 
do so without taking thought of the mar¬ 
velous adaptability of both plants and ani¬ 
mals. And thus they deny, by implication 
at least, the doctrine of evolution. 

Through the medium of various astro¬ 
nomical publications, reports are con¬ 
tinually coming of the death of old stars, 
the birth of new ones, the discovery of new 
comets, of new elements in old heavenly 
residents, and ever new photographs are 
given out. This ceaseless activity in the 
oldest of the sciences promises new accre¬ 
tions of knowledge in the future. See 
Pythagoras; Ptolemy; Copernicus; 
Galileo; Brahe; Kepler; Laplace; 
Newton; Planet; Satellite; Zodiac; 
Eclipse; Star; Sun; Aurora Borealis. 

Asylum, a Greek word designating a 
temple inclosure within which refugees 
might seek protection. One who had 
killed another in self-defense might take 
refuge from the avenger of human blood 
in an asylum. If the refugee could make 
out a good case, the priests were required 
to protect him; otherwise he was delivered 
to the authorities for punishment. To vio¬ 
late an asylum, that is, to drag out by 


force one who sought protection, was an 
act of the utmost impiety, sure to be pun¬ 
ished by the gods. 

Among the Jews certain towns were des¬ 
ignated as cities of refuge, “that whoso¬ 
ever killed any person unawares, might 
flee thither and not die by the hand of 
the avenger of blood until he stood before 
the congregation.” Among those who 
might lay claim to the rights of asylum 

were slaves who had been cruelly treated 
* * 

by their masters, soldiers defeated in bat¬ 
tle and pursued by the enemy, and crim¬ 
inals who wished to evade trial. In the 
Middle Ages many monasteries served as 
places of refuge. In days of murder and 
political revenge instances are not want¬ 
ing of even kings taking refuge for the 
remainder of their days. The idea of 
“asylum, or refuge” originated in a state 
of society in which wrongs, real or fan¬ 
cied, were adjusted with a strong hand, 
a society in which established courts were 
wanting. The Cherokee Indians had a 
city of refuge on the Tennessee, where the 
murderer was safe. Even the white man 
who had taken the life of an Indian was 
safe “once his foot touched the soil of 
this city.” 

In modern times the term has been used 
to indicate a shelter or home for the needy, 
as, for instance, an orphan asylum. Most 
commonly, however, an asylum is a place 
for the safe keeping and care of the insane. 
In America each state and province makes 
liberal provision for insane asylums where 
the unfortunate are cared for at public 
expense. These institutions are sometimes 
called hospitals. See Insanity. 

Asylum, Right of, in international law, 
a privilege accorded by the law of nations, 
or by custom to foreign legations to shelter 
within their precincts persons subject to the 
jurisdiction of the state in which such lega¬ 
tion is maintained. The person taking 
refuge within the legation was deemed to 
have come under the jurisdiction of its 
flag, and so long as he remained there to 
be as exempt from legal process of the 
country as if he had escaped to the foreign 
territory represented by the legation, but 
the right, if it extends at all, is a right to 
extend protection, not to claim it. 


AS YOU LIKE IT—ATHABASCA 


As You Like It, one of Shakespeare’s 
best known comedies. It was presented on 
the stage as early as 1600, but was not 
printed until 1623, when it appeared in 
the collection known as the “First Folio.” 
The drama is founded on a novel by 
Thomas Lodge, but Shakespeare’s “crea¬ 
tive genius has surrounded a commonplace 
tale with an atmosphere of graceful ro¬ 
mance.” The scene is entirely in the open 
air; first a garden, then the lawn sur¬ 
rounding a palace, then, and for the great¬ 
er part of the play, the forest of Arden. 
The plot is simple. It is the characters 
themselves that charm us; what they say, 
rather than what they do, that holds our 
attention. A quarrel between brothers, 
the daughter of an exiled duke disguising 
herself as a young forester, her interviews 
with her unsuspecting lover, the reconcilia¬ 
tion of the brothers through “kindness, 
nobler than revenge,” the four pairs of 
lovers that “join in Flymen’s bands,” the 
exiled duke finally restored to his own 
by the conversion of the usurper—such 
are the incidents of the play. But the 
wit and sprightliness of Rosalind, the 
frank sweetness of Celia, the coquettishness 
of Phoebe, the nobleness of Orlando, the 
wise folly of Touchstone—these are the 
things that charm. See Rosalind; 
Touchstone; Shakespeare; Arden. 

It is the most ideal of any of Shakespeare’s 
plays. . . . There is hardly any one of Shakes¬ 
peare’s plays that contains a greater number of 
passages that have been quoted in books of ex¬ 
tracts, or a greater number of phrases that have 
become in a measure proverbial. If we were 
to give all the striking passages we should give 
half the play.—Hazlitt. 

QUOTATIONS FROM “AS YOU LIKE IT.” 

Sweet are the uses of adversity. 

Sucks melancholy out of a song as a weazel 
sucks eggs. 

For in my youth I never did apply 
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood. 
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, 

Frosty, but kindly. 

True is it that we have seen better days. 

Neither rhyme nor reason. 

I would the gods had made thee poetical. 

Down on your knees, 

And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man’s 
love. 

All the world’s a stage, 

And all the men and women merely players. 


Men have died from time to time, and worms 
have eaten them,—but not for love. 

How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness 
through another man’s eyes! 

There’s small choice in rotten apples. 

My cake is dough. 

Atalan'ta, in Greek legend, a maiden of 

Arcadia. She had been warned by an ora¬ 
cle not to marry. She therefore avoided 
the society of men and gave herself to 
the pleasures of the chase. She was very 
beautiful, however, and had many suitors, 
upon whom she imposed the following con¬ 
ditions: “I will be the prize of him who 
shall conquer me in the race; but death 
shall be the penalty of all who try and 
fail.” Many youths attempted the race, 
but Atalanta outran them all until Hip- 
pomenes appeared. He was a favorite of 
Venus, whose aid he invoked in order to 
win the race. The goddess gave him three 
golden apples, instructing him to throw 
them, one at a time, before Atalanta as 
she ran. She was attracted by the apples, 
paused, turned aside, and was thus over¬ 
taken by Hippomenes. The two were wed¬ 
ded and were very happy; but Venus, 
vexed because Hippomenes seemed un¬ 
grateful, caused the pair to be transformed 
into lions, destined henceforth to draw the 
chariot of Cybele. 

Atchison, Kans., the county seat of 
Atchison Co., is beautifully situated on the 
“Great Bend” of the Missouri River, 20 
miles above Fort Leavenworth. It was set¬ 
tled in 1854 by the pro-slavery party during 
the war between that party and the anti¬ 
slavery party for the control of the des¬ 
tiny of Kansas. It was named in honor of 
Senator D. R. Atchison, a vigorous leader 
of the pro-slavery party. Atchison is an 
important industrial center; population 
12,630. 

Athabas'ca, a river, lake, and region on 
the eastern slope of the Canadian Rockies. 
The river rises in the Rocky Mountains 
of Alberta, near the sources of the Sas¬ 
katchewan, and flows in a tortuous, nor¬ 
therly direction into Lake Athabasca, 
whence its waters find their way ultimate¬ 
ly through the Mackenzie River to the 
Arctic Ocean. Its length is about 600 
miles, equal to that of the Seine and the 
Thames combined. Lake Athabasca is 


ATHANASIUS—ATHENS 


about 200 miles in length with an extreme 
width of thirty-five miles. It is comparable 
in size to Lake Ontario. The district of 
that name was a quadrangular territory, 
comprising a quarter of a million square 
miles, lying east of British Columbia and 
extending from the sixtieth parallel of 
north latitude to Alberta and Saskatche¬ 
wan. Athabaska is also the name of one 
of the high mountain peaks of the Cana¬ 
dian Rockies. Its height is 11,700 feet. 

Athanasius (296-373), bishop of Alex¬ 
andria and head of the Christian church in 
Egypt. He was a learned Greek. At the 
time when the struggle was on between 
the followers of Arius and the supporters 
of the doctrine of the Trinity, Athanasius 
was leader of the Trinitarians. He was 
obliged to flee more than once to the desert 
for his life. Now that theological con¬ 
troversy affords less delight than formerly, 
Athanasius is likely to be forgotten; but 
for centuries his writings were regarded 
as one of the bulwarks of the Nicene or 
Trinitarian faith. Athanasius is one of 
the men who stand high in the history of 
the Roman church. See Nice. 

Atheism. See Theism. 

Athenaeum, the temple of Athena, or 
Minerva, at Athens, and elsewhere. As 
Athena was the patroness of learning and 
wisdom, Athena’s temple was the resort 
of the poets, learned men, and wits of Ath¬ 
ens, who there exchanged views and read 
their books aloud. In this way the literary 
people of Athens formed a sort of club. 
A school of rhetoric, with a regular staff 
of professors, established in Rome by the 
Emperor Hadrian, was known as the Athe¬ 
naeum. A score of professors offered sys¬ 
tematic study in oratory, rhetoric, philoso¬ 
phy, and jurisprudence. In modern times 
the name has become popular for libraries, 
learned associations, and literary journals. 

Athene, a-the'ne, or Athena, in Greek 
mythology, the goddess of knowledge and 
of righteous war, identified with the Ro¬ 
man Minerva. She personified not only 
mental acuteness, but also the clear upper 
air, and was clothed with the aegis, or 
storm cloud, and armed with lightning. 
She is often called Pallas Athene. See 
Minerva. 


Athenian Bee, a name conferred upon 
Plato, in allusion to the beauty and sweet¬ 
ness of his style. See Plato. 

Athens, the chief city of Attica, and 
the present capital of the modern kingdom 
of Greece. It was built on an irregular 
assemblage of hills in the sides of which 
explorers have found rock caves which 
may have been the homes of the original 
inhabitants. Historically, the city grew 
up around a central acropolis or hill. The 
Acropolis of Athens w r as a craggy rock 
about 150 feet high, with a flat summit 
1,000 feet long and half as wide, access¬ 
ible on one side only. It was an admirable 
place of refuge. The city which grew up 
about its base was four or five miles dis¬ 
tant from the sea. In the course of time 
it was surrounded by a strong wall. 

Notwithstanding their inland location, 
the Athenians became noted as the boldest 
sailors and the most enterprising mer¬ 
chants of Greece. Three harbors were im¬ 
proved; the most important of these, the 
Peiraeus, was fortified by Themistocles 
with a massive wall of masonry, sixteen 
feet broad and thirty feet high. The 
blocks of stone were clamped together with 
iron. To connect the city of the Acropo¬ 
lis and the city of the harbor, the Athe¬ 
nians built long walls, inclosing a lane 
five miles long and 550 feet in width. 
These walls were made so broad and mas^ 
sive that their tops served as carriage 
roads. At the height of Athenian power, 
which may be placed at 460 B. C., Athens 
not only monopolized the greater part of 
the commerce of the Mediterranean but 
reduced no less than 280—Aristophanes 
says 1,000—other Greek cities to the posi¬ 
tion of allies and required them to pay 
tribute. An immense amount of treasure 
was thus brought into the public coffers 
and was expended in magnificent public 
buildings. Athens became the world’s me¬ 
tropolis, the center of art, literature, and 
science. 

Athens possessed the finest public ourid- 
ings of the ancient world. There were 
several open air auditoriums, designed for 
public assemblies, musical recitals, and the 
presentation of dramas. A semi-circular 
excavation was cut in the side of a hill, 


ATHENS 


resembling one-half of a saucer or shallow 
cup. The natural stone was left in ter¬ 
races to serve as seats, or terraces were 
built of marble slabs in the shape of steps. 
Sometimes a stone wall was built across 
the open space from end to end of the 
arc. A table of masonry at the middle 
of this wall, attained by steps, served as 
a platform for the speaker. In speak¬ 
ing he faced the hill. In the case of a 
theater the wall was replaced by a build¬ 
ing which served as a retiring room for 
the actors. The performances, however, 
were given in the open air. The greatest 
of these audience rooms is said to be the 
Stadium. It was finished in Pentelic 
marble and was capable of seating 40,000 
persons. Another famous place of public 
assembly was the Pnyx (nix) on a low 
hill. The venerable Areopagus had an 
open air auditorium of its own. 

The temple of Theseus, like other im¬ 
portant buildings, was constructed of mar¬ 
ble. It is still in a tolerable state of pres¬ 
ervation. Every alternate slab of stone 
in its frieze is devoted to a representation 
of the heroic deeds of Theseus and Her¬ 
cules. A temple of Jupiter was 354 feet 
long and 171 feet broad. It was adorned 
with 120 magnificent Corinthian columns, 
61 feet in height and over 6 feet in diame¬ 
ter. Sixteen of these still stand. This 
was the largest and most magnificent tem¬ 
ple of Zeus ever erected. The famous 
statue of the Olympian Jupiter was shel¬ 
tered here. It was made in ivory and 
gold by Phidias, the most celebrated sculp¬ 
tor of antiquity. 

The crowning architectural glory of the 
city was a group of buildings on the 
Acropolis. As stated, this could be ap¬ 
proached only on the western slope by a 
passage 160 feet in breadth. A magnifi¬ 
cent marble vestibule fifty feet deep was 
built across this entire width, with a wing 
at either end, the entire edifice presenting 
a colonnade supported on Doric columns. 
A carriageway thirteen feet wide passed 
through the center. Two ways of less 
width led between columns along either 
side. The summit of the Acropolis was 
adorned with many temples, altars, and 
statues, including the colossal bronze fig¬ 


ure of Athena, at least fifty feet in height. 
One of the principal buildings was the 
Erechtheum. It was one of the most 
graceful examples of the Ionic order. A 
porch is especially celebrated, being sup¬ 
ported by six columns, representing per¬ 
fectly proportioned, chastely clad female 
figures in marble, called the Caryatides. 
The greatest building of all was the Par¬ 
thenon, still considered the crowning effort 
of Grecian architecture. The pillars were 
of the Doric order. It was sacred to 
Athena, the patron goddess of the city. 

Other famous places which the student 
now finds it difficult to locate were the 
Agora, or public market place, with tree- 
lined walks; the Academy, with its groves 
and walks and fountains where Plato 
taught; and the Lyceum, the no less cele¬ 
brated haunt of Aristotle. 

During the Roman occupation of 
Greece, particularly during the reign of 
the Antonines, the buildings of Athens 
were guarded with care. Several hundred 
years after it had been begun, the Em¬ 
peror Hadrian himself gave orders for the 
final completion of the temple of Zeus 
mentioned above. A triumphal arch in 
Hadrian’s memory still stands in the vicin¬ 
ity. With the removal of Roman protec¬ 
tion, however, the art treasures of Athens 
were pilfered by the East and by the West. 
Many were carried to Rome and to Con¬ 
stantinople. The choicest sculpture was 
used to build garden walls or to construct 
huts. The marble steps of the Stadium 
were quarried like common rock for the 
most ordinary building purposes. 

Under Turkish rule Athens became a 
mass of tumble-down ruins, inhabited by 
a few wretched people, still clinging to 
the scenes of magnificence witnessed by 
their once proud ancestors. The Parthe¬ 
non became at one time a church of the 
Virgin Mary, and the Arabs turned it into 
a mosque. It remained almost intact un¬ 
til 1687. During the siege of the city by 
the Venetians it was partially destroyed 
by an explosion of powder. 

A large number of the finest pieces of 
sculpture, particularly blocks of the friezes, 
were taken from the Acropolis early in 
the nineteenth century and are preserved 


ATHENS'—ATHLETICS 


in the British Museum. The porch of the 
Caryatides still stands. Travelers speak 
with admiration also of a Temple of the 
Winds, yet found in a tolerable state of 
preservation. It is an octagonal marble 
building, formerly surmounted by a bronze 
weather vane. Each of the eight faces of 
the cornice bears a figure of the wind god 
of the quarter toward which it turns. Bo¬ 
reas, the north wind, on the northern cor¬ 
nice, is represented as blowing a noisy 
conch. Notus, the rainy south wind, car¬ 
ries a water jar. Zephyrus, the west wind, 
has a lap full of flowers. Within the 
tower, the architect constructed a water 
clock, or clepsydra, supplied with water 
from a spring on the Acropolis. 

Modern Athens is well equipped with 
public schools and institutions of learning. 
Aside from the elementary schools, there 
are the Government Commercial School 
and the two universities—the National and 
the Capodistria—the former founded in 
1836. Together, these two universities 
have 56 professors, 106 lecturers, and 
3,250 students studying medicine, law, 
philosophy, theology and chemistry. Of 
the whole number, 800 are from abroad, 
chiefly from Turkey. The polytechnic, 
has 22 professors and 170 students, this 
school having faculties of painting, sculp¬ 
ture, mechanics, architecture, surveying, 
and similar subjects. The expense of pri¬ 
mary education is borne by the State. 

Modern Greece is jealously safeguarding 
and preserving the remaining architecture, 
sculpture and other treasures from her glo¬ 
rious past. The Ministry of Education is 
in charge of the Service of Antiquities, 
which is managed by an Archaeological 
Council, which is responsible for the con¬ 
servation and reparation of all antiquities 
from any period (Prehistoric, Classical, 
Byzantine and Mediaeval), 

Athens, Ga., a cotton market and manu¬ 
facturing center, 69 miles east of Atlanta 
on the Oconee river. It is the county seat 
of Clarke Co. In the city are the Univer¬ 
sity of Georgia, the Georgia State College 
of Agriculture, the Lucy Cobb Institute for 
Girls, and a State Normal School. Here 
also is the famous “tree that owns itself,” 
a tree to which 16 feet of land were deeded 


by Col. W. H. Jackson. The population in 
1920 was 16,748. 

Atherton, Gertrude Franklin 

( 1857- ), probably the most important 

American female author. She was born 
in San Francisco, Cal. She is a great- 
grand niece of Benjamin Franklin. All 
her works are serious, and are marked by 
breadth of learning, vigor of style, and 
independence of thought. She has at least 
30 books to her credit, imporant among 
which are The Conqueror, a story of the 
life of Alexander Hamilton; The Cali¬ 
fornian, and Ancestors, the scenes of which 
are laid in her native state; Senator North, 
a picture of social and political life in 
Washington, D. C.; Julia France and Her 
Times; Sleeping Fires; and Black Oxen, 
1923. 

Athletics, the art or practice of athletic 
games or exercises. The distinction be¬ 
tween athletics and gymnastics is not clear. 
Among the Greeks, who led the world in 
physical training, as they did in sculpture, 
architecture, and literature, the athlete was 
one who contended in games for a prize; 
the gymnast was a trainer of professional 
athletes. Homer describes athletic games 
in the Iliad; Plato, Aristotle, and other 
ancient writers considered athletics a nec¬ 
essary part of an education. The Greek 
cities, particularly Sparta and Athens, had 
large buildings and grounds for the train¬ 
ing of the youth in athletic exercises, and 
gave the subject a large place, the lion’s 
share, in fact, in their system of educa¬ 
tion. Such a building was known as a 
gymnasium (plural, gymnasia). The 
academy in which Plato taught, and the 
lyceum in which Aristotle lectured, were 
gymnasia. The Greek gymnasium was 
placed in charge of a chief gymnast, who 
was assisted by four instructors. Physi¬ 
cians were in attendance to adapt the 
physical exercises to the endurance of each 
student. Baths both hot and cold were 
provided. There were exercises in tum- 
bling, dancing, running, leaping, climbing 
ropes, springing from the knees, jumping 
on slippery objects without falling, wres¬ 
tling, and throwing the discus. Rowing, 
swimming, swinging, riding, and driving 
were prescribed forms of outdoor exercise. 


ATHLETICS 


At regular intervals national games were 
held, at which representatives of the dif¬ 
ferent gymnasia contended for prizes. The 
winner of a general prize was carried home 
in triumph by his townsmen, given the 
freedom of the city, and not infrequently 
maintained at public expense. 

During the Middle Ages young squires 
who were candidates for knighthood 
were given a thorough training in running, 
leaping, throwing weights, wrestling, box¬ 
ing, hurling the lance, leaping to the back 
of a horse and leaping down again, and, 
above all, practice in the use of the lance 
and sword. In short, no pains were spared 
in the physical training of a young man 
intended to wear the heavy armor and as¬ 
sume the responsibility of a knight. 

Of modern nations, the Germans have 
been the most systematic in physical train¬ 
ing. Turners’ societies are general, not 
only in Germany, but in all parts of the 
world where Germans have colonized. As 
a matter of fact, however, the British are 
the most athletic of modern people. While 
the British games lack the system and the 
formality to be found among the Germans, 
they are all the more heartily entered into. 
The spirit of Hughes’ Tom Broivn at Rug¬ 
by, the hearty enjoyment of sport and the 
peculiar pleasure of it, is more manifest in 
England, Scotland, and Ireland than in 
any other part of the world. Boating, foot 
racing, wrestling, boxing, quoits, football, 
cricket, jumping, rolling the hoop, playing 
hare and hounds, prisoner’s base, and 
other games calling for a less degree of 
physical exertion, have been favorites in 
the British schools and among the young 
people for generations. Modern wrestling, 
if we overlook the Japanese jiu-jitsu, is a 
British art. In fact, each county has its 
particular style of wrestling and tripping. 
In Lancashire, the catch-as-catch-can style ; 
in Cumberland and Westmoreland, the 
back-hold system; in Devon and Cornwall, 
the catch-hold, etc. The colonial fondness 
for wrestling in New England, Kentucky, 
and elsewhere may be traced to that of the 
mother country. 

During the early years of our republic, 
so long as agricultural employment was 
nearly universal, it was considered that 


work on the farm, in the shop, and in the 
kitchen gave all the exercise requisite to 
good health. Of late years, however, the 
universities, colleges, high schools, and 
academies, supplemented by the efforts of 
the Young Men’s Christian Association, 
have established gymnasia for physical 
training. Dumbbells, Indian clubs, bars, 
wands, parallel bars, flying rings, ladders, 
climbing ropes, springboards, and tumbling 
mats have been provided. Various con¬ 
trivances for expanding the chest and 
strengthening the muscles of the body have 
been devised. Many of the larger gymna¬ 
sia, as at Harvard and Michigan, have 
large indoor tracks. Hockey, golf, cricket, 
lawn tennis, and baseball, have become 
widely popular. Athletic contests between 
classes, schools, colleges, and universities 
have become general. Field day is one of 
the most interesting parts of commence¬ 
ment week. The Amateur Athletic Union 
of the United States has adopted rules for 
baseball, bicycling, boating, bowling, cross 
country running, football, handball, hurdle 
racing, jumping, lacrosse, lawn tennis, pole 
vaulting, putting the weight, quoits, racket, 
running, skating, sculling, swimming, 
throwing the hammer, throwing weights, 
tug-of-war, and walking. There are several 
subordinate associations covering the states 
of the Union. 

A few amateur world’s records may be 
of interest. The jumping records were 
made without weights. 

100 yard dash.9 2/5 sec. 

1 mile run .4 min., 12 3/5 sec. 

100 mile run .13 hr., 26 min., 35 sec. 

120 yard hurdle race.15 sec. 

220 yard hurdle race .23 3/5 sec. 

Standing high jump .5 ft., 5^4 in. 

Running high jump.6 ft., 7 5/16 in. 

Standing jump, for distance.11 ft., 6 in. 

Running jump, for distance.25 1/3 in. 

'Standing hop, step and jump.30 ft., 3 in. 

Running, hop, step and jump.50 ft., 11 in. 

Pole vault .14 ft., 4 in. 

Throwing 12 lb. hammer.213 ft., 9% in. 

Throwing 16 lb. hammer.189 ft., 6j4 in. 

Putting 12 lb. shot.55 ft., 11^4 in. 

Putting 16 lb. shot.54 ft., 4 in. 

Walking 1 mile .6 min., 29 3/5 sec. 

Discus throw .15514 ft. 

Walking 10 miles.1 hr., 17 min., 40^4 sec. 

Walking 100 miles .21 hr., 42 sec. 

Walking 1 hour .8 mi., 270 yards 























ATLANTA 


An all-round athlete 5 feet 10 inches in 
height is considered well built if his meas¬ 
urements are approximately: Weight, 155 
pounds; chest measure, 39 inches; waist 
measure, 29 inches; hip measure, 37 
inches; thigh measure, 22 inches; calf 
measure, 14% inches. 

In 1896 an international Olympic com¬ 
mittee arranged for a revival of Olympic 
games. The first meet was held at Athens. 
The second was held at Paris in 1900. 
The third was held in connection with the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 at 
St. Louis. 

The 1920 Olympic games were held at 
Brussels, Belgium. On June 3, 1921, it 
was announced that the 1924 games would 
be held at Paris, and the 1928 games at 
Amsterdam. Because of the World War 
no games could be held in 1916. The 
Olympic games for 1912 were held at 
Stockholm. 

Atkinson, Edward (1827-1905), an 
American economist, was born at Brook¬ 
line, Mass., and educated in private schools. 
Mr. Atkinson was for many years connected 
with manufacturing companies, and for 
some years after 1878 was president of the 
Boston Manufacturers’ Mutual Fire Insur¬ 
ance Company. His reputation, however, 
is based upon his writings on economic sub¬ 
jects. He wrote articles, pamphlets, and 
books on banking, railoards, economic 
legislation, tariff, money, fire-prevention, 
competition, industrial education and 
colonial expansion. Mr. Atkinson opposed 
with vigor the war in the Philippines, and 
during 1899-1900 published the Anti-Im¬ 
perialist in support of his opinions. His 
more important works are Cheap Cotton 
by Free Labor, The Industrial Progress 
of a Nation, Reform of the Legal Tender 
Act, Science of Nutrition, Distribution of 
Products, The Margin of Profit, and Facts 
and Figures the Basis of Economic Science . 

Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, is 
situated at the southwestern angle of the 
Appalachian Mountains on the ridge that 
divides the waters of the Gulf from those 
that flow toward the Atlantic. The first 
house was built in 1836. The population 
in 1860 was about 11,000. During the 
Civil War, General Sherman occupied 



Atlanta after a siege of several months, and 
set out from this point on his march to the 
sea. He himself compared the strategic 
position of the city to a wrist, the fingers 
of which reach to the various ports on the 
Atlantic and the Gulf—a description which 
suits the commercial situation as well. The 
Cotton Exposition of 1881 attracted gen¬ 
eral attention to the commercial possibilities 
of Atlanta and the agricultural resources 
of the vast, fertile region which surrounds 
it. Ten radiating lines of railways have 
united in building a union station costing 
$900,000. 

Atlanta ranks high as an exporting center 
for cotton, tobacco, grain, horses and mules. 
Her tobacco trade is the largest south of 
Richmond, Va., and she is the second 
largest mule market in the United States. 
Hydro-electric power is developed from the 
Chattahoochee River, which has here been 
dammed and otherwise improved. Atlanta’s 
factories produce cotton goods, flour, furni¬ 
ture, shoes, cottonseed oil, lumber, patent 
medicines, agricultural and other ma¬ 
chinery, clothing, steel products and ferti¬ 
lizer. Because of her advantageous position 
her industrial importance will continue to 
increase. In 1850, the population of 
Atlanta was only 2,572 ; in 1920, it was 
200,616. 

Notable among the educational institu¬ 
tions are the Georgia School of Technology 
which is a branch of the State University; 
Emory University, which has recently add¬ 
ed departments of law, medicine, dentistry, 
and education; Agnes Scott College, recog¬ 
nized as one of the leading institutions in 
the South for the education of women; 
Oglethorpe University, the Alma Mater of 
Sidney Lanier, and the Atlanta School of 
Medicine. The public school system is 
organized on the most modern plan, be¬ 
ginning with the kindergarten and extend¬ 
ing through six years of the elementary 
school, three years of the junior high school 
and three years of the senior high school. 
The following institutions are devoted to 
the higher education of negroes: Atlanta 
University, Clark University, Moore House 
College, Morris Brown College, Spellman 
Seminary and Gammon Theological 
Seminary. 








ATLANTIC CITY—ATLANTIC OCEAN 


Atlanta is situated 1,000 feet above sea 
level, and its temperature varies between 
44° in winter and 77° in summer. It con¬ 
tains a parked area of about 850 acres, as 
well as numerous golf courses, country 
clubs and other places for recreation. 

The most striking buildings are the 
capitol, completed in 1889 at a cost of 
$1,000,000; Fulton County ,Courthouse 
recently completed at a cost of $3,000,000; 
the Federal Building, the Union Station, 
and the Federal Prison, one of the three 
in the United States. 

Because of its progressive spirit Atlanta 
is sometimes referred to as the “Chicago 
of the South.” It was the home of Henry 
Grady, of Joel Chandler Harris, “Uncle 
Remus,” and many other distinguished 
men and women. 

See Georgia ; Cotton ; Sherman. 

Atlantic Cable. See Cables. 

Atlantic City, a seaport of New Jersey 
and the most important all-the-year-round 
resort in the United States. It is built on 
Absecon Beach, a narrow, sandy island ten 
miles in length, and lying about five miles 
from the mainland of southeastern New 
Jersey. The climate is so mild and the ac¬ 
commodations so good that Atlantic City 
is popular in mid-winter. There are sev¬ 
eral miles of beach suitable for bathing, 
while boating, fishing, and hunting furnish 
amusement. The streets of the city are 
broad, and bear the names of the various 
states of the Union. Eight miles of board 
walk, twenty to sixty feet wide, furnish a 
popular promenade along the beach. It is 
known everywhere as “The Board Walk.” 
Steam and electric railroads traverse the 
sixty miles between Philadelphia and At¬ 
lantic City, and magnificent express trains 
make daily trips. Trains run into the city 
also from New York, Washington, and 
Pittsburg. The Atlantic City Hospital, 
the Children’s Seashore Home, and the 
Mercer Memorial Home for Invalid 
Women are situated here. There are about 
eight hundred hotels and boarding houses, 
among them some of the largest and best 
equipped on the coast. The resident popu¬ 
lation was, in 1920, 50,682, while the 
transient population in summer amounts 
to six or seven times that number. 


transient population in summer amounts 
to 300,000 or 400,000. 

A number of large recreation piers ex¬ 
tend into the sea, among which Young’s 
Pier is the most widely known. Boating 
and bathing facilities are unsurpassed 
and during the season it is estimated 
that 100,000 persons enjoy the surf 
daily. Fishing and hunting are other 
favorite sports and the city has an ex¬ 
cellent country club. 

Atlantic City is of comparatively re¬ 
cent growth. While the first settlers 
appeared in 1780, only seven houses 
were standing in 1852. Two years later 
the Camden & Atlantic Railroad was 
completed and this gave the town the 
first start. The name, Atlantic City, 
was adopted and plans for making a 
summer resort here were rapidly devel¬ 
oped. In 1902, the city suffered from a 
disastrous fire, but the damaged buildings 
were quickly rebuilt. 

Atlantic Ocean, The, so named from 
Mt. Atlas, the vast body of water situated 
between the continent of America on the 
west and Africa and Europe on the east. 
Geographers usually consider the Arctic 
and Antarctic circles as its polar bounda¬ 
ries. The area is about 25,000,000 square 
miles. Its breadth in a direct east and 
west line varies. The distance from the 
most easterly point of Brazil to the African 
coast is 1,730 miles; from Florida to the 
African coast 4,150; and from Greenland 
to Norway 930. The eastern coast line is 
over 30,000 miles in length, the windings 
of the Mediterranean included; the west¬ 
ern coast is over 55,000 miles in length if 
carried into all the gulfs and bays. The 
entire coast line of the Atlantic equals that 
of the Pacific and the Indian Oceans com¬ 
bined. The greatest depth thus far found, 
27,366 feet, is not far to the north of 
Porto Rico. This depression is exceeded 
only by the altitude of Mt. Everest and two 
of its neighbors in Central Asia. The 
South Atlantic appears from soundings to 
be separated from the North Atlantic by a 
ridge running from Ascension Island to 
St. Paul. Soundings connected with the 
laying of cables have determined the fact 
that the North Atlantic is divided into 


ATLANTIS—ATLAS 


two broad north and south valleys, each 
500 miles wide, by an intervening ridge or 
plateau 400 miles wide, the ends of which 
appear to rest at Iceland and the Azores. 
The waters of the tropics are denser and 
contain more salt than is found to be the 
case nearer the equator or toward either 
pole. The salt of the ocean is said to be 
somewhat more than one-fortieth of its en¬ 
tire weight. Deep sea dredgings reveal 
the fact that the bottom is covered with a 
soft ooze, the product of minute shells, the 
covering of microscopic animals. 

The currents of the Atlantic may be dis¬ 
missed as too complex for description with¬ 
in the limits of this article. In the sim¬ 
plest words, a powerful equatorial current 
following the equator westward splits on 
the eastern shoulder of South America. 
The southeastern branch runs southward 
along the coast of Brazil and forms an 
eddy or circuit in the South Atlantic, re¬ 
joining the equatorial current again off the 
coast of Africa. The northern branch 
coasts along the northern shore of South 
America, enters the Caribbean, and emerg¬ 
es from the great bay as the Gulf Stream. 
In its northeasterly course this stream 
branches and sends a current along the 
western coast of Greenland; another fol¬ 
lows the western coast of the British Isles 
and Norway; and the third, reinforced by 
an undertow of Arctic waters, sweeps 
southward east of the Azores and past the 
coast of Guinea to complete the northern 
eddy and join the equatorial current. 

The Atlantic is a stormy sea. Its waters 
are full of life. Whales, porpoises, sharks, 
vast shoals of herring, mackerel, and cod 
are found in its shallows, and its shores are' 
thronged with gulls, cormorants, and all 
sorts of sea birds. Though not the largest 
or the deepest ocean, the Atlantic receives 
eighteen out of thirty-three, or over half 
of the world’s great rivers. 

Atlantis, a mythical island in the far 
west, mentioned by Plato and other writers. 
Some scholars have claimed that the belief 
in Atlantis was founded on hints of the 
existence of the far off continent of Amer¬ 
ica. Geologists admit that there is evi¬ 
dence of the former existence of a tract 
of land west of the entrance to the Med¬ 


iterranean Sea, but they claim that it sub¬ 
sided beneath the waves before the d4wn 
of history or even possible tradition. 

Atlas, a mountain chain in northwest¬ 
ern Africa. It runs from the Atlantic to 
the Mediterranean, traversing Morocco, 
Algeria, and Tunis. The system consists 
in the main of two mountain folds. The 
little Atlas is nearest the sea coast; the 
great Atlas borders the Sahara. The two 
folds are separated in places by sandy 
plains, a hundred miles wide, and again 
they knot together. The highest peak of 
the little Atlas rises to a height of 7,611 
feet; the highest peaks of the great At¬ 
las are from 11,000 to 14,600 feet high. 
The range reaches its greatest altitude in 
Morocco. The mountain folds are 
composed chiefly of limestones, clays, 
schists, and gneiss. There are veins of 
copper, iron, silver, and lead. The Atlas 
region is not particularly deficient in mois¬ 
ture. There are sections of great fertility. 
The mountains are covered for the most 
part with forests of oak, pine, poplar, and 
wild olives. Grasses, shrubs, and flower¬ 
ing plants abound. The loftiest summits 
rise above the timber line, and, though 
in a sub-tropical latitude, they are seldom 
without a covering of snow. Numerous 
rivers rise in the mountains, but all are 
short. Those on one side reach the Atlan¬ 
tic or the Mediterranean. Streams on the 
other side are lost in the sands of the Sa¬ 
hara. Springs reappearing give rise here 
and there to an oasis. The range is by no 
means formidable to travelers. Caravans, 
following well known lines of travel, wind 
through rocky defiles. The French coast 
is well provided with railways. Several 
long spurs reach up into the more popu¬ 
lous interior, but no line (1910) has as 
yet crossed the main range into southern 
Algeria. See Morocco. 

Atlas, in Grecian mythology, one of 
the Titans. He was the son of Japetus 
and Clymene, and married Pleione, daugh¬ 
ter of Oceanus. The details of the myth 
vary greatly. According to Hesiod, Atlas 
took part in the Titan War. The victo¬ 
rious Zeus condemned him to stand at the 
western extremity of the earth, and sup¬ 
port the sky on his shoulders and hands. 


ATMOSPHERE—ATTENTION 


Hawthorne retells the story in The Won¬ 
der Book. While searching for the golden 
apples of the Hesperides, Hercules came 
to Atlas, who offered to get the apples if 
Hercules would only relieve him of his 
burden. This Hercules agreed to do. But 
Atlas, although he brought the apples, as 
he had promised, was unwilling to- resume 
his task. Hercules cunningly appeared to 
submit; but he asked Atlas to hold the sky 
just a minute, that he might assume a more 
comfortable position. Atlas innocently con¬ 
sented. Hercules seized his golden apples 
and escaped. Another story is that Atlas 
was a rich king, living in that part of the 
earth where the sun goes down. He was 
larger than all other men. Perseus, after 
the slaughter of Medusa, paused for rest 
and food in the kingdom of Atlas. The 
king, fearing that he would be robbed of 
the golden apples in his garden, which were 
his special pride, refused to receive the 
guest. Perseus, turning away his own 
face, held up the Gorgon’s head, which he 
carried with him. This possessed the same 
power in death that it had had in life, and 
Atlas was changed into stone. His beard 
and hair became forests; his shoulders, 
huge cliffs; his head a summit. Upon the 
mountain thus formed from his great bulk, 
it pleased the gods to rest the sky. 

The word atlas in anatomy designates the 
first vertebra of the neck, which supports 
the head. The name is, of course, derived 
from the old legend of Atlas supporting 
the sky. Our use of the term atlas to des¬ 
ignate a volume of maps sprang from the 
customary employment of a figure of Atlas 
crouching beneath his burden to adorn the 
margin of a map or to fill in a blank space. 

Atmosphere. See Air. 

Atoll. See Coral. 

Atomic Theory. See Chemistry. 
Atropos. See Fates. 

Attar of Roses, a fragrant oil ob¬ 
tained from the petals of roses. The fra¬ 
grance of a rose is due to microscopic glob¬ 
ules of oil that evaporate freely. Attar is 
combustible. A district near Benares, In¬ 
dia, is famous for rose gardens. Attar 
of roses is extensively produced near Da¬ 
mascus and in Cashmere. It is a favorite 


perfume of the wealthy Turks, Persians, 
and Hindus. The attar requires so many 
roses that it is exceedingly expensive. Some 
400,000 roses are required to produce an 
ounce of pure attar worth perhaps $80 or 
$100. Only a few of the cultivated vari¬ 
eties of roses are used in producing the oil. 
During the season the roses are gath¬ 
ered daily. Buds that open in the morning 
are picked before the midday sun dissi¬ 
pates the fragrance. The fragrant por¬ 
tions of roses are put into a closed still, 
and are boiled in water,—in a teakettle 
with a tight lid, as it were. The minute 
globules of fragrant oil in the petals are 
broken up and the oil escapes with the 
steam through a pipe into another recep¬ 
tacle, where, on the steam cooling, the oil 
floats on the water and may be poured off 
into small vials for shipment. The water 
the petals are boiled in also retains a part 
of the fragrant oil and may be sold as rose 
water. See Perfumery. 

Attention, self-direction of the mental 
activities to a definite object of thought. 
The problem of attention is one of com- 
. parative recent recognition among psychol¬ 
ogists, although traces of it are found in 
the older works, particularly the descriptive 
works of the eighteenth century. Although 
neglected for so long a time, attention has 
become the subject of a somewhat extensive 
pedagogical literature. It is now consid¬ 
ered one of the most important activities 
of the mind. Most modern authorities 
recognize three phases of attention—pass¬ 
ive, active and secondary passive. Passive 
attention is non-voluntary or spontaneous. 
The active or voluntary phase is directed 
by the will for a definite purpose; the 
secondary passive phase is habitual and 
acquired through environment and expe¬ 
rience. 

These phases are best illustrated by a 
concrete case: A boy on the bank of a 
shallow stream was attracted by a sparkle 
of light on the water’s edge (passive atten¬ 
tion). His curiosity was awakened and 
he sought the cause of the phenomenon 
(active or voluntary attention). He found 
that the beam of light was caused by a 
glassy crystal embedded in a small frag¬ 
ment of. rock. His curiosity, was not satis- 


ATTICA 


I 


fied and he decided to learn what the sub¬ 
stance was, so he took the rock to school 
and asked his teacher about it. 

The teacher answered the question in 
such a manner as to awaken an interest in 
rocks on the part of nearly all his pupils, 
and they decided to devote a portion of 
their time each week to the study of rocks. 
But the subject was new and those who 
volunteered to engage in the study at first 
found it required effort to keep their atten¬ 
tion upon it. Each day, however, they 
discovered something new, and were sur¬ 
prised at the many relations rocks sus¬ 
tained to other subjects. With these dis¬ 
coveries interest increased, and less effort 
was required to hold the attention upon 
the subject. Voluntary attention was 
yielding to secondary passive attention. 
The pupils were becoming a m a te u r 
geologists. 

Non-voluntary attention is characteristic 
of the young child. Voluntary or active 
attention is associated with the acquisition 
of every new idea and leads us on in every 
new experience. Secondary passive atten¬ 
tion is the power of a trained mind which 
can bring to bear upon any subject the 
wealth of knowledge and experience 
acquired through the life-time of the in¬ 
dividual. 

Development of Attention. The 
mind develops through contact with ex¬ 
ternal objects with which it comes in con¬ 
tact. through the special senses. Some 
impressions are stronger than others, and 
these are the first to attract attention. 
Every moment that we are awake the atten¬ 
tion is active. Consciousness and attention 
are inseparable. There is a constant strug¬ 
gle on the part of sensations to survive 
in consciousness. Only those which we 
allow to obtain a hold upon the attention 
remain. The child’s attention at first flits 
from one impression to another, until it 
lays hold upon one that is of interest. Then 
it becomes purposeful and is fixed for a 
short time upon that impression. An idea 
is gained and lodged in the memory. Re¬ 
currences of this impression bring into con¬ 
sciousness the former experience and the 
attention is more easily fixed upon it. The 
new idea remains in the fofcus of conscious¬ 


ness for a longer time and additional quali¬ 
ties are discovered and the idea is enriched 
by the second and each succeeding ex¬ 
perience. 

Attention is given to those impressions 
which make the strongest appeal to the 
child’s nature. In other words, attention 
is attracted by interest. Without interest 
the attention can be held upon an object 
for a short time only. Interest develops 
attention and attention increases interest 
because the longer we study an object the 
more fully we bring our mental powers to 
bear upon it, the more qualities and rela¬ 
tions we discover in it. At first we hold 
our attention upon a new subject by will 
power, but as interest develops the effort 
required to fix attention upon the object 
lessens until attention becomes habitual. 
Attention follows the law of habit, and 
secondary passive attention is essential to 
progress in the acquisition of knowledge, 
as well as in other fields of endeavor. 

Attica, the southern peninsula and the 
most famous district of ancient Greece. It 
is still a land of mountain and plain, of 
the olive tree and the grape, of oil and 
wine. It was noted among the ancients 
for “inhabitants ever seeking some new 
thing.” The political supremacy of an¬ 
cient Greece was due largely to the seafar¬ 
ing.enterprise of the inhabitants of Attica. 
It is still a geographical division on the 
map of modern Europe, but its glory lies 
in the past. No other area so diminutive 
in size is associated with so much of the 
world’s art, literature, and history. Mt. 
Pentelicus, noted for its marble: Mt. 
Hymettus, for its honey; the Plain of 
Marathon, for the defeat of Darius’ ar¬ 
my ; Eleusis with its mysteries; “the rocky 
brow which looks o’er sea-born Salamis”; 
and Athens, itself, “the eye of the world,” 
are some of the names which make Attica 
famous. It has an area of 2,000 square 
miles, and a present population of 250,000 
engaged in wresting a living from rather 
barren mountain slopes and a thin, sandy, 
stony soil. The complete destruction of 
forests has allowed freshets and torrents 
to carry away the soil and leave many a 
hillside bare. Historic fountains and 
vales, noted in myth and poetry, are re- 


ATTIC BEE—ATTORNEY-GENERAL 


duced to prosaic, dry, rocky gullies. See 
Greece. 

Attic Bee, an epithet applied in ancient 
times to Sophocles, on account of the sweet¬ 
ness and beauty of his writings. For a 
somewhat different view, see article on 
Sophocles. 

Attic Muse, a name given by the Greeks 
to the historian Xenophon, whose style 
was regarded as a model of elegance. 
See Xenophon. 

Attila (406-453 A. D.), the famous 
king of the Huns. He is termed “The 
Fear of the World,” “The Scourge of 
God.” He is described as a strongly built 
man with a large head, flat, wide nostrils, 
and small, glittering eyes. He is reputed 
to have had arms so long that he could al¬ 
most catch up stones without stooping. He 
was a man of : mposing and even ferocious 
aspect and was followed by his soldiers 
with implicit confidence. So complete was 
the devastation caused by his army, that it 
was his constant boast that grass never 
grew where the hoof of his horse had trod. 

The Huns were an Asiatic people of 
Tartar affinity, entirely distinct from the 
Slavs, the Teutons, ^and the Romans. They 
appeared in Europe about 400 A. D. The 
nations of Europe made common cause 
against them. Attila led a force estimated 
at 700,000, though this is probably an ex¬ 
aggeration, westward through Germany, 
crossed the Rhine, and drove the Burgun¬ 
dians before him as far as Chalons, where 
he was opposed by the united military 
forces of western Europe. Burgundians, 
Franks, Romans, and Goths united to fight 
the battle of Europe against Asia. A 
million men, if we may believe such a 
battle possible, are said to have en¬ 
gaged in a hand to hand conflict. Bow¬ 
men, spearmen, and swordsmen, horse and 
foot, fell in battle. Theodoric, the Goth, 
fell. European chroniclers claim that 
300,000 Huns were left on the field 
of battle. The Hunnic tide was rolled 
backward. Aetius, “the last of the Ro¬ 
mans,” followed the sullen horde of the 
Huns as they retired slowly toward the 
east. Subsequent attempts at invading 
Italy proved a failure; partly, as has been 
suggested, on account of pestilence and fe¬ 


ver, which broke out in the camp of Attila. 
Attila is said to have died through the 
bursting of a blood vessel. He was buried 
with great ceremony and pomp by his fol¬ 
lowers. The empire of Attila was broken 
into fragments after his death and ceased 
to be a menace to European civilization. 
See Venice; Huns. 

Happily the peoples' of the West realized their 
danger and laid aside all small rivalries to meet 
it. Theodoric, the hero-king of the Visigoths, 
brought up his hosts from Spain to fight under 
the Roman banner. Burgundian and Frank ral¬ 
lied from the corners of Gaul and Aetius, “the 
last of the Romans,” marshaled all these allies 
and the last great Roman army of the West 
against the countless Hunnish swarms reen¬ 
forced by Tartar, Slav, Finn and even by tribu¬ 
tary German peoples. The fate of the world 
hung trembling in the balance, while the great 
“battle of the nations” was fought at Chalons. 
United though they were, the forces of civili¬ 
zation seemed insignificant before the innumer¬ 
able hosts of the Asiatics.—West, The Ancient 
World . 

That is the Hunnenschlacht; “a battle,” as Jor- 
nandes calls it, “atrox, multiplex, immane, per- 
tinax.” Antiquity, he says, tells of nothing like it. 
No man who had lost that sight could say that 
he had seen aught worth seeing. A fight gigan¬ 
tic, supernatural in vastness and horror, and in 
the legends which still hang about the place. 
You may see one of them in Von Kaulbach’s 
immortal design—the ghosts of the Huns and 
the ghosts of the Germans rising from their 
graves on the battle-night in every year, to 
fight it over again in the clouds, while the coun¬ 
try far and wide trembles at their ghostly hur¬ 
rah.—Kingsley, Roman and Teuton, 

It was the perpetual question of history, the 
struggle told long ago by Herodotus, the strug¬ 
gle between Europe and Asia, the struggle be¬ 
tween cosmos and chaos—the struggle between 
Aetius and Attila. For Aetius was the man who 
now stood in the breach, and sounded the Ro¬ 
man trumpet to call the nations to do battle for 
the hopes of humanity and defend the cause 
of reason against the champions of brute force. 
The menace of that monstrous host which was 
preparing to pass the Rhine was to exterminate 
the civilization that had grown up for centuries 
. . . and to paralyze the beginnings of Teutonic 
life. . . . But the interests of the Teutons were 
more vitally concerned at this crisis than the 
interests of the empire. . . . Their nascent civili¬ 
zation would have been crushed under the yoke of 
that servitude which blights, and they would not 
have been able to learn longer at the feet of 
Rome the arts of peace and culture. —Bury, La¬ 
ter Roman Empire . 

Attorney-General, a legal officer of 
high rank. In England the term is ap- 


ATWOOD—AUDUBON 


plied to an officer of the crown. The at¬ 
torney-general of the United States is the 
fourth member of the president’s cabinet. 
He has general supervision over the attor¬ 
neys and marshals of all the districts in the 
United States and territories. A similar 
officer in each state of the Union has gen¬ 
eral charge of the legal business of the 
state. In case an officer of the govern¬ 
ment is in doubt, the attorney-general’s 
interpretation of a law is binding until the 
courts have ruled otherwise. A treasurer, 
uncertain, for instance, whether the law 
directs him to pay out certain moneys, may 
do so with full authority if advised by 
the attorney-general that such is, in his 
judgment, the proper interpretation to be 
placed upon the legislative act in question. 
A similar officer is called the county at¬ 
torney. 

Atwood, George (1746-1807), an 
English mathematician and inventor. He 
was educated at Westminster School and at 
Trinity College, Cambridge, in which he 
was afterward a tutor. He was a fellow 
of the Royal Society of London, and held a 
position in the British patent office under 
Mr. Pitt. He contributed a number of 
papers to the Philosophical Transactions, 
also some treatises on philosophical sub¬ 
jects. He is of interest to the schoolboy as 
the inventor of Atwood’s machine, a de¬ 
vice to verify the laws of the acceleration 
of motion for falling bodies. 

Auburn, the scene of Goldsmith’s De¬ 
serted Village. “Sweet Auburn, loveliest 
village of the plain,” is understood to be 
the village of Lissoy in the central part 
of Ireland. Nearly every state in the 
Union has an Auburn. The largest of 
these is Auburn, New York. 

Auburn, New York, the county seat of 
Cayuga County. It is a well built, pros¬ 
perous city of 36,192 people, engaged 
largely in manufacturing. A fine water¬ 
fall furnishes power and a state prison 
part of the labor. It is the seat of Auburn 
Theological Seminary, an institution of 
high rank, founded by the Presbyterian 
denomination. A statue honors the name 
of William H. Seward, a native of this 
place. In the nineteenth century discus¬ 
sion of prison management, the system in 


vogue in the Auburn penitentiary was fre¬ 
quently quoted as a type of the congregate 
as opposed to the solitary method of con¬ 
finement. 

Auction, a sale of property in public 
to the highest bidder. The sale may be 
conducted by written bids opened at a giv¬ 
en time or by public outcry. An auctioneer 
is required usually to have a license. His 
compensation may be fixed at a certain 
percentage or by time. In either case, the 
goods sold may be held for his pay. If 
the goods are delivered to the auctioneer, 
especially at his place of business, he is 
responsible to the owner for their selling 
value; but not so if the goods are sold 
on the owner’s premises and the owner 
acts as his own clerk. Burlesque and face¬ 
tious commendation of goods is permitted 
to create good humor, but s r *ious misstate¬ 
ments designed to mislead bidders void a 
sale. The auctioneer may decline to sell 
on a single bid; but if a second, however 
low, be accepted by announcement to the 
crowd, the article may not be withdrawn 
from sale. The auctioneer is responsible 
for the delivery of the goods to the success¬ 
ful bidder. In a town the display of a 
red flag announces that an auction is in 
progress. The public crier is also wont 
to pass along swinging his bell and call¬ 
ing “auction, auction.” Country auctions 
are announced usually in local papers and 
by means of hand bills. In Scotland an 
auction is called a public roup. In sell¬ 
ing an important property, as for instance, 
a large estate, the Scotch auctioneer some¬ 
times resorts to the device of lighting an 
inch of candle. The highest bid made be¬ 
fore the wick falls over and the flame dies 
out secures the property. There are from 
20,000 to 30,000 auctioneers in the United 
.States. There are about 5,000 city auction 
houses. 

Audubon, John James. (1780-1851), 
an American naturalist, a native of Louisi¬ 
ana. His parents were French. They sent 
him to Paris to study drawing. From 
childhood Audubon was given to hunt¬ 
ing birds’ nests and to keeping birds as 
pets. When he returned from Paris he 
took to an outdoor life. He spent years 
in what were, at that time, the wilderness- 


AUDUBON SOCIETY 


es of the Mississippi Valley. He made his 
headquarters for a time at Henderson, Ken¬ 
tucky. He explored the forests and water¬ 
ways of the West and South. Sometimes 
his tramp occupied several months. In 
1826 he went to London and published a 
work called The Birds of America . It 
contained a description of over one thou¬ 
sand birds with reproductions of drawings 
colored by his own hand. A complete set 
of Audubon’s Birds in good condition is 
now worth several hundred dollars. Audu¬ 
bon’s memory is preserved by an organiza¬ 
tion of Audubon societies. Branch asso¬ 
ciations for the protection and study 
of birds have been organized in not less 
than forty states of the Union. See Bird. 

Audubon Society, an association for 
the protection of birds. The persistence 
with which many birds have been hunted 
for their plumage has alarmed American 
bird lovers. Local Audubon societies exist 
in nearly every state of the Union. Forest 
and Stream has done excellent service in 
arousing public interest. Under the presi¬ 
dency of William Dutcher, a national as¬ 
sociation of Audubon societies has been 
formed with a paying membership of 1,000 
members. National aid has been enlisted. 
Under authority of law President Roose¬ 
velt set aside a number of tracts for bird 
preserves. Each reserve is in charge of 
a government warden. He receives but one 
dollar a year from the government, but 
the position clothes him with authority. 
The expense is defrayed by the Audubon 
Association. In these reservations it is an 
offense against the law to kill a bird, to 
take an egg, or even to gather a feather. 
The reserves are scattered widely. They 
include swamps, forests, mud islands, and 
oceanic rocks. 

A national organization was started at 
a meeting held in Washington in 1902, and 
in 1905 the organization of the National 
Association of Audubon Societies for the 
Protection of Wild Birds and Animals, 
William Dutcher, president, T. Gilbert 
Pearson, secretary and financial agent, be¬ 
came a fact. Through the generous gift 
of Mr. Albert Willcox the undertaking had 
a sound financial basis (in 1905-06 more 
than $331,000). At the end of 1906 the 


association had an interest-bearing endow¬ 
ment fund of over $336,000, in addition 
to about $9,000 from other sources. 

In 1910 the Audubon bill was enacted 
in New York State, forbidding the sale of 
feathers of native birds. Laws similar to 
this followed in about 12 other states. In 
1915 there was an enrollment of 373,153 
school children as Junior Audubon mem¬ 
bers, and these received instruction in bird 
lore. The association has a special corps 
of lecturers, who give instruction to teach¬ 
ers at summer schools. 

A department of applied ornithology was 
begun in 1914. This is a special work de¬ 
signed to get people interested in attracting 
birds about their homes, and for the propa¬ 
gation of ducks and other game by those 
whose homes favored the work. Bulletins 
and lectures emphasizing these points are 
important features of the organization. 

The National Association of Audubon 
Societies is now a strong combination, far- 
reaching in its results. Paid wardens are 
kept to protect sea birds and their nests, 
on the Atlantic as well as the Gulf coasts 
in the United States. Islands where sea 
birds breed are owned or leased. The 
societies originated the Federal bird reser¬ 
vations, and co-operate with the government 
financially for their protection. Over 
6,000,000 pages of literature dealing with 
the protection of bird life are issued 
annually. Money is expended every year 
for the protection of big game, for the 
feeding of game birds and song birds in 
winter, and for the prosecution of those 
breaking the game laws. A large sum of 
money is collected each year to further the 
cause, and it is a point of pride with the 
association that but seven per cent of the 
income is expended for administrative 
salaries. 

Following are the various national re¬ 
serves : Duck Lake, off the coast of Maine; 
Stump Lake, in North Dakota; Huron 
Island, in Lake Huron; Pelican Island, in 
Indian River, Florida; Passage and Indian 
Keys, in the Tampa Bay; Breton Island, 
off the Louisiana coast; the Shell Key Re¬ 
serve, off the Louisiana coast; Tern Island; 
Three Arch Rocks, off the coast of Oregon ; 
the Key West‘Reservation, off the coast of 


AUERBACH—AUGUST 


Florida; the Tortugas Keys Reservation, 
embracing the islands within the Dry Tor¬ 
tugas in the Gulf of Mexico, and 6 others 
recently organized. Among these are the 
Klamath Lake Reserve, the Matlacha Pass 
Reservation, in Florida; the Palma Sola, 
in Palma Sola Bay; the Pine Island Reser¬ 
vation, Florida; the Chase Lake Reser¬ 
vation, N. Dakota, and the Lake Malheur, 
in Oregon. 

See Bird. 

Auerbach, ow'er-bak, Berthold (1812- 
1882), a German novelist and poet. He 
was of Hebrew parentage and was born 
at Nordstetten, Wiirtemberg. He began 
writing while a student at Heidelberg, but 
won little attention until some years later, 
when he published Village Tales of the 
Black Forest , which made him famous. 
These stories have been translated into 
nearly all European languages. On the 
Heights is Auerbach’s masterpiece. Brigit- 
ta is also a popular story. 

Augean Stables, the stables of Augeas, 
king of Elis. Three thousand oxen had 
been kept here for thirty years. The 
cleansing of these stables formed one of 
the twelve labors of Hercules. It was 
performed by him in a single day. The 
words, “Augean Stables,” have come to be 
used figuratively for an excessive accumu¬ 
lation of filth. The expression is also 
used to describe corrupt political condi¬ 
tions, implying that the remedy is almost 
beyond human power. See Hercules. 

Augsburg, a celebrated city of Bava¬ 
ria. It takes its name from the old Ro¬ 
man colony established by Augustus about 
14 B. C. In the Middle Ages Augsburg 
was a free, imperial city and the great 
center of traffic between Germany, Italy, 
and the Levant. The daughters of its 
merchants were considered fit wives for 
princes. The men of the Fugger family, 
in particular, raised themselves from the 
state of poor weavers to that of wealthy 
merchants, the Rothschilds of their age. 
They frequently replenished the exhausted 
treasury of Maximilian I and Charles V. 
Charles V held his famous Diets in this 
city. In 1530 the Protestant princes sub¬ 
mitted the Augsburg Confession to the 
emperbr for his approval. This was a 


reformed creed drawn up by Melanchthon. 
It is the present basis of the Lutheran 
faith. 

On account of its buildings and historic¬ 
al associations, Augsburg is an exceed¬ 
ingly interesting old city. The tourist is 
interested in the cathedral with fine 
stained glass windows, and altar pieces 
by Holbein the Elder; in the city hall, 
on the gable of which is fixed a large pine 
cone of bronze, the heraldic emblem of 
the city; in the Maximilian Museum, with 
collections of coins, medals, wood carv¬ 
ings, smith work, and relics from lake 
dwellings; in the Fugger House, still the 
residence of a descendant of that family; 
and in a picture gallery in the old mon¬ 
astery of St. Catherine. The old walls 
of the city have been leveled to make 
room for fine boulevards. The present 
population is about 154,555. The city has 
a fine water power, utilized by means of 
a number of canals traversing the town. 
Citizens are engaged in a number of mod¬ 
ern industries, including the manufacture 
of linen, cotton, woolen, and silk cloth, 
watches, jewelry, goldsmith work, scien¬ 
tific instruments, leather, chemicals, and 
type. The Algemeine Zeitung, or Augs¬ 
burg Gazette , one of the most influential 
papers in Europe, is published here. 

See Nuremberg; Westphalia, Peace 
of. 

Augsburg Confession. See Augsburg. 

August, the eighth month of the year. 
Beginning the year with March the Ro¬ 
mans called August Sextilis, or the sixth 
month. Quintilis, or the fifth, was renamed 
July, in honor of Julius Caesar. The Ro¬ 
man senate renamed the sixth month, Au¬ 
gust, in honor of Caesar’s successor, the 
Emperor Augustus. August had original¬ 
ly but thirty days; July had thirty-one; 
so an additional day was added to August 
in order that the month of Augustus might 
not seem inferior in any respect to the 
month named in honor of Julius Caesar. 
This is one reason why the months of 
the year are so unequal in length, it being 
impossible to give them all thirty-one days 
apiece. In the north temperate zone Au¬ 
gust is preeminently the month of har¬ 
dest. It is a Winter month in Tasmania. 


AUGUSTA—AUGUSTUS 


Augusta, a beautiful city of Georgia 
at the headwaters of the Savannah River. 
It is regularly laid out with broad streets 
and many shade trees. Greene street, the 
most important residence street, is one 
hundred seventy feet wide and has a park¬ 
way with a double row of trees running 
through its center from end to end. The 
city operates the Augusta Canal, one of the 
largest in the country. From a dam in the 
river nine miles above the city, it furnishes 
water power for a dozen large cotton mills. 
Augusta is one of the largest cotton 
markets in the world. It has also manu¬ 
factories of cotton goods, iron foundries, 
wood working establishments, and railroad 
shops. It has a fine hotel, the Bon Air, 
which is a favorite with winter tourists 
from the north. Augusta is the county 
seat of Richmond County. Its population 
in 1920 was 52,548. 

Augusta, the capital city of the state 
of Maine. It is the county seat of Kenne¬ 
bec county, and is situated on both sides of 
the Kennebec River about sixty miles 
northeast of Portland. A dam above the 
city furnishes water power for cotton mills, 
pulp and paper mills, and for lumber man¬ 
ufactories. Augusta has one of the finest 
state houses in New England, built of 
white granite. It contains the state library 
of 60,000 volumes. The United States 
Arsenal is on the east side of the river and 
a National Soldiers’ Home is just outside 
the city limits. Augusta’s location among 
the hills and lakes of the Kennebec coun¬ 
try has made it a popular summer resort. 
Its population in 1920 was 14,114. 

Au'gustine, Saint (354-430), one of 
the most renowned fathers of the early 
Christian church. He was a native of Nu- 
midia, educated at Carthage and at Rome. 
In his youth he appears to have been rath¬ 
er a wild young pagan; but on his con¬ 
version to Christianity he became one of 
the pillars of the church. He rose to be 
bishop of Hippo, now Bona, a seaport 
of Algeria. 

An order of monks, calling themselves 
hermits of St. Augustine, or Augustinians, 
formed in north Africa, has since spread 
to various parts of the world. Luther, 
it may be remembered, was a monk of 


St. Augustine. The Augustinians are well 
represented in Cuba, the Philippines, and 
in the United States. Augustine left a 
large body of writings in Latin. They 
are regarded with respect and have wide 
influence. 

Longfellow acknowledges a suggestion 
in the following lines: 

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said. 
That of our vices we can frame 
A ladder, if we will but tread 

Beneath our feet each deed of shame. 


Nor deem the irrevocable Past, 

As wholly wasted, wholly vain. 

If, rising on its wrecks, at last 
To something nobler we attain. 

Augus'tus (63 B. C.-14 A. D.), a title 
of honor given by the Romans to the em¬ 
peror, Caius Octavius. He was a grand¬ 
nephew of Julius Caesar, who trained him 
for public affairs and made him his heir. 
Upon the assassination of Caesar, Octa¬ 
vius inherited the influence of Caesar’s par¬ 
ty. With Mark Antony and Lepidus, he 
formed the famous Second Triumvirate, 
which resulted, as may be remembered, 
in the exclusion of Lepidus, the overthrow 
of Antony and his mistress, Cleopatra, and 
the final recognition of the leading spirit, 
Octavius, as the august master of the 
Roman world. 

Next to Julius Caesar, Augustus may 
be considered the master military genius 
of Rome. He extended and confirmed 
the Roman power in every direction, sub¬ 
jugating outlying tribes and subduing re¬ 
volts. The temple of Janus, the doors 
of which stood open in time of war, was 
closed twice during his reign, something 
unprecedented in the earlier history of 
Rome. During intervals of peace he did 
much to found colonies, to reform civil 
abuses at home, and to improve the ap¬ 
pearance of Rome. Of the latter, it is 
said, “He found it of brick, but left it of 
marble.” 

Much as we may dislike many traits in 
the young man, it is only justice to say 
that in his mature years he established 
order, afforded security to various indus¬ 
tries, built roads, drained marshes, estab¬ 
lished a postal system, ordered a census 
taken, and had the art, moreover, to sink 



AUK—AULD LANG SYNE 


an early life of adroit, unscrupulous self¬ 
ishness and partisan butchery in a later 
life of decorous unostentation in which 
the public good seemed his only desire. 
Under his rule the empire increased in 
wealth and population. 

Among writers his reign is known as 
the Augustan Age. In Latin literature, 
it corresponds to the Elizabethan Age of 
England. The great writers of Rome, 
Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy belong to 
this period. During the reign of Augus¬ 
tus, Christ the Lord was born in Bethle¬ 
hem of Judea, and the wise men of the 
East came with their treasures to seek him. 

See Antony; Cleopatra. 

Auk, a member of the large group of 
diving birds. The auk is related to the 
murres, puffins, grebes, and loons. It is 
remarkable for the shortness of its wings, 
which it employs as fins or paddles for 
swimming under water. It is remarkable 
also for the position of the legs, which are 
placed so far backward that the bird walks 
with difficulty, and is obliged to main¬ 
tain an upright attitude. It has a much 
compressed bill, so sharp along the ridge 
as to resemble the edge of a knife. The 
auks are sea-birds. They are wonderful 
divers. They catch fish, and gather shell 
fish at the bottom of the sea. They nest 
in colonies on islets or on the rocky shores 
of the northern part of the northern hemi¬ 
sphere. Auks lay but one egg in a season. 
There is no attempt at nest building. The 
female holds the egg above her webbed 
feet between the thighs. 

There are several species of auks. The 
razor-billed auk is the largest existing 
species. It is about seventeen inches long, 
blackish above, with a large white spot 
before the eye. The sides of the neck 
and throat are seal brown; belly, white. 
It is very common on the coasts of Brit¬ 
ain. Its eggs are considered a delicacy. 
On the coast of Labrador the birds are 
killed for their feathers; and in some 
places their flesh is used for food. It is 
a fierce bird, and, if seized, will hold on 
to the hand with its bill until it is killed. 

The auk of which most has been writ¬ 
ten is the great auk. This bird was 
shaped somewhat like a loon, with black 


upper parts; sides of the upper parts and 
throat silvery brown; under parts silvery 
white. Length, thirty inches—the size of 
a goose. It was unable to fly. Its wings 
were shaped for diving flippers. It lived 
on fish, and ranged from Massachusetts 
and Ireland along the coasts and islands 
to the Arctic Circle. Its annual migrations 
were made wholly by swimming. It was 
hunted so zealously for oil, flesh, and 
feathers that, in spite of enormous num¬ 
bers, no living auk has been seen since 
1842. Some seventy specimens and a 
number of eggs have been preserved in 
museums. An egg is reported to have 
brought $1,000 in 1906 at a London auc¬ 
tion. Four auks frequent our Pacific Coast. 
One, the least auklet, has the “bulk of a 
small, thinly-feathered screech owl.” 

Auld Lang Syne, a Scotch song. It 
was composed by Robert Burns about 1789. 
Auld Lang Syne is sung oftener than any 
other of Burns’ songs. It is claimed, in¬ 
deed, that it is sung oftener than any other 
song in the world. Its popularity seems 
to be increasing. As to the sources of the 
poem, Burns stated in his notes that he 
had written the song from hearing an old 
man sing it. Mr. Manson suggests that 
“the general opinion is that the poet was 
romancing. At least, if he recast some 
old song he handled it so as to make it 
his own, and to confer immortality upon 
it.” Mr. W. E. Henley, the very intelli¬ 
gent and appreciative editor of the Cen¬ 
tenary edition of Burns, has dug up an 
old song or two, familiar, no doubt, to 
Bums, from which he selects the follow¬ 
ing lines and refrain: 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot. 

An’ never thocht upon? 

On old long syne, my jo, 

On old long syne, 

That thou canst never once reflect 
On old long syne. 

Mr. Henley adds, “And, after all, 
however poignant the regret, and however 
wide-eyed and resentful the amazement of 
those who esteem a man’s work on the same 
terms as they would a spider’s, and value 
it in proportion as it does, or does not, 
come out of his own belly, enough remains 
to Burns to keep him easily first in the 
first flight of singers in the vernacular, 


I ■■ 





AURORA BOREALIS 

1 streamers a common form in north tempeia e 

2 Draperies,’ a type often observed in Greenland. 


latitudes. 





































AUROCHS—AURORA BOREALIS 


and to secure him, outside the vernacular, 
the fame of an unique artist. I have said 
that, as I believe, his genius was at once 
imitative and emulous; and, so far as the 
vernacular song is concerned, to turn the 
pages of our third volume is to see that, 
speaking broadly, his function was not 
origination but treatment, and that in 
treatment it is that the finer qualities of 
his endowment are best expressed and dis¬ 
played. His measures are high-handed 
enough; but they are mostly justified. He 
never boggles at appropriation.” 

We make room for the song entire. The 
version is that of Mr. Manson: 

AULD LANG SYNE. 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot 
And never brought to min’? 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot. 

And auld lang syne? 

Chorus. 

For auld lang syne, my dear, 

For auld lang syne. 

We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, 

For auld lang syne. 

We twa hae run about the braes. 

And pou’d the gowans fine; 

But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fitt 
Sin’ auld lang syne. 

We twa hae paid’lt i’ the burn 
Fra mornin sun till dine; 

But seas between us braid hae roar’d 
Sin’ auld lang syne. 

And here’s a hand, my trusty fier. 

And gie’s a haud o’ thine; 

And we’ll tak a right guid-willie waught. 

For auld lang syne. 

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp, 

And surely I’ll be mine; 

And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet. 

For auld lang syne. 

Auld Licht Idylls, a collection of short 
stories, by James Matthew Barrie, depict¬ 
ing Scottish village life. See Barrie. 

Aurochs, a'roks, the wild ox of Eu¬ 
rope. . It was once abundant in the forests 
of Europe, but has been hunted until only 
a few herds, under protection, are now left 
in Lithuania and in the Caucasus Moun¬ 
tains. It resembles the American bison or 
“buffalo” closely, but is a trifle larger and 
less shaggy. The fore and hind quarters 
of the aurochs are also unequal. See 
Bison. 

Aurora, a prosperous city of Kane 
County, Illinois, situated on the Fox 


River, about forty miles from Chicago. 
Aurora is important as a manufacturing 
center. Among its numerous products are 
cotton goods, corsets, silverware, flour, 
sash and blinds, stoves, carriages, and ma¬ 
chinery. It is on several railroads, the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy having ex¬ 
tensive railroad shops in the city. The 
public schools of Aurora are exceptionally 
good. The Jennings Seminary is located 
here, and there are many churches, a Car¬ 
negie library, and a fine city hall. The 
population in 1920 was 36,397. 

Aurora, a-ro'ra, in Roman mythology, 
the goddess of the dawn. She was called 
Eos by the Greeks. The poets of both na¬ 
tions were wont to describe her as rising 
from the ocean in a chariot, “with rosy fin¬ 
gers dropping gentle dew,” in fanciful al¬ 
lusion to the rosy skies just before sunrise. 
From personifying the. dawn of day, the 
word Aurora has come to be used as syn¬ 
onymous with rise or beginning. There 
are many allusions to Aurora among Eng¬ 
lish poets. See Guido Reni. 

Aurora, now, fair daughter of the dawn, 
Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn. 

—Pope. 

I care not Fortune what you me deny: 

You cannot rob me of free Nature’s grace, 
You cannot shut the windows of the day 
Through which Aurora shows her brightening 
face. —Thomson. 

Now to Aurora, borne by dappled steeds, 

The sacred gate of orient pearl and gold 
Expanded slow to strains of harmony. 

—Landor. 

Aurora Borealis, the Northern 
Lights. Frequently after nightfall, a dark 
band may be seen in the northern sky, 
surrounded by an outer arc of streaming 
light. The farther the observer advances 
into the polar regions, and the colder 
the winter, the more brilliant this light 
becomes. Travelers tell us that these 
northern lights do much to dispel the dark¬ 
ness of the long arctic night. They are 
brighter even than moonlight. Hunters 
can see to pursue the seal and walrus; 
dog trains travel with security; at times 
ordinary print can be read without diffi¬ 
culty. The region of greatest intensity does 
not appear, however, to be at the north 
pole but to be a zone crossing the northern 


AURORA LEIGH—AUSTIN 


land masses, following closely the zone 
of greatest cold described elsewhere under 
Arctic Regions. Scientists have settled 
down to the conclusion that the aurora is 
an electrical light and that, though it 
streams far up into the heavens, seeming¬ 
ly filling space, it is in reality entirely 
within the earth’s atmosphere. A corre¬ 
sponding phenomenon in antarctic regions 
is called the Aurora Australis, or Southern 
Lights. 

Auro'ra Leigh, le, the heroine of a nar¬ 
rative poem of the same name by Mrs. 
Browning. See Browning, Elizabeth 
Barrett. 

Aurungzebe, a-rung-zeb', emperor 1 of 
Hindustan. He was the third son of the 
emperor Shah Jehan. His reign began in 
1658, after he had murdered two brothers 
and imprisoned his father. He was sur- 
named “Conqueror of the World.” Mus- 
selmans-regard him as one of the greatest 
of their monarchs. He built a magnifi¬ 
cent mosque in Benares. It is still the 
most prominent object in that sacred city. 

Austen, Jane ( 1775-1817), an English 
novelist. Her father was a rector who 
gave his daughter the best education at 
his command. Her novels read now seem 
to make much of little and to be the prod¬ 
uct of an amiable, refined, commonplace 
mind. The chief are Sense and Sensibility, 
Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and 
Emma. Miss Austen was buried at Win¬ 
chester. Walter Scott was pleased to say 
of her work: “That young lady had a 
talent for describing the involvements, 
feelings, and characters of ordinary life 
which is to me the most wonderful I have 
ever met with. The big bow-wow I can 
do myself like anyone going; but the 
exquisite touch, which renders common¬ 
place things and characters interesting 
from the truth of the description and the 
sentiment, is denied to me.” 

Austerlitz, a small town of Moravia. 
It lies about a hundred miles north of 
Vienna. The village has a population of 
about 3,500 people. There is pride in a 
palace belonging to a local prince, and in 
a beautiful church. Austerlitz is memo¬ 
rable for a battle fought here December 2, 
1805. A French army of 60,000 men led 


by Soult, Murat, and Bernadotte complete¬ 
ly defeated 80,000 Russians and Austrians 
under the command of Kutusoff. The 
French lost about 12,000 men; the allies 
over 30,000. The slaughter was height¬ 
ened by the unexpected assault of Napo¬ 
leon’s reserves upon the Austrians as they 
were fleeing from the battlefield. This 
part of the battle deserves the name of 
massacre. The battle of Austerlitz is 
called sometimes the Battle of the Three 
Emperors. Three emperors, Napoleon, 
Francis, and Alexander I, were present. 
This battle is memorable as bringing to an 
end the ancient Holy Roman Empire which 
had existed since 962, the Hapsburgs there¬ 
after being known as emperors of Austria. 
Napoleon’s power reached its zenith at this 
time. 

Austin, Alfred (183 5-1913), an English 
poet, critic, and journalist, poet laureate 
of England. He was born at Headingly, 
near Leeds. He was educated at the Uni¬ 
versity of London and called to the bar 
in 1857. For ten years he was editor of 
the National Review. He was made poet 
laureate on the death of Tennyson in 1896. 
Mr. Austin is the author of novels, po¬ 
litical works, and many volumes of poems. 
Among them may be mentioned, The 
Season, a Satire, The Human Tragedy, 
Savonarola. In prose and verse are The 
Garden that I Love, In Lamia’s Winter 
Quarters, and Flaunts of Ancient Peace. 
Austin severely criticised the poetry of his 
own period, calling it “feminine, narrow, 
domesticated, timorous.” He demanded 
the movement and passion of former eras, 
and yet his own poetry lacks decidedly 
both movement and passion. There is 
some diversity of opinion in regard to his 
verse, but it is conceded generally that his 
shorter poems are more acceptable than 
his pretentious efforts. 

The author’s satirical interludes have point, 
and I have seen graceful lyrics from his pen; 
but his ambitious verse, on whatever principle 
composed, is not of the class that reaches the 
popular heart, nor likely, on the other hand, to 
capture a select group of votaries like those so 
loyal from the outset to Rossetti and Browning. 
—Stedman. 

Austin, Stephen Fuller ( 1792 - 1836 ), 
a Texan pioneer. From his father, Moses 


AUSTRALASIA—AUSTRALIA 


Austin of Connecticut, he inherited a 
grant from the Mexican government for 
the settlement of 300 American families 
somewhere in Texas. This colony Stephen 
located at what is now the city of Aus¬ 
tin, the present capital of the state. When 
this and other American colonies had re¬ 
ceived a considerable number of settlers, 
they met in convention, and sent Austin 
to Mexico to request permission for the 
formation of a Mexican state, to be known 
as Texas. The evasive answer of the 
Mexican government, Santa Anna’s in¬ 
vasion of the country, the siege of the 
Alamo, and Texan independence are all 
a part of the history of the Southwest. 
Austin did much for the new state and 
may be regarded justly as one of the Amer¬ 
ican founders of empire. See Texas; 
Alamo. 

Australasia, an arbitrary term used to 
name a division of the globe. Geogra¬ 
phers include usually under this name 
Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the 
Fiji Islands. By others it is made to in¬ 
clude parts of Polynesia and the Malay 
Archipelago. The same group of islands 
is designated sometimes by the term 
Melanesia, which means “black islands," 
the natives belonging for the most part to 
the black race. The word “Australasia" 
means “South Asia." 

Australia, a continent situated south¬ 
east of Asia between the Indian and the 
Pacific Oceans. The name is derived from 
the Latin australis, meaning southern. The 
continent may be compared in shape to a 
geranium leaf, with the Great Australian 
Bight occupying the southern shore or base 
of the leaf, and the Gulf of Carpentaria 
extending into the northern shore or tip 
for a distance of 1,000 miles. The great¬ 
est east and west line of Australia is 
2,400 miles; the greatest north and south 
line is 1,970 miles. If the map of Aus¬ 
tralia were placed on that of North Ameri¬ 
ca, the extremities of these lines would 
fall in the vicinity of New York and San 
Francisco, and Galveston and Winnipeg 
respectively. The area of Australia, in¬ 
cluding as it does the island of Tasmania, is 
2,974,581 square miles. The coast is regu¬ 
lar with few indentations. Its entire ex¬ 


tent is 8,000 miles. A coral reef, known 
as the Great Barrier reef, follows the 
northeastern coast for about 1,000 miles. 
It is separated from the continent by a 
channel from ten to thirty miles wide. 
Darwin considered that the coast has sub¬ 
sided gradually, and that the coral insects 
have simply kept their fringe of reef built 
up to the level of the surface, but this 
theory has been abandoned. 

Topography. A fringe of broken pla¬ 
teaus and low mountain ranges curves 
around three sides of the continent not 
unlike a wide horseshoe, with the two ends 
at the eastern and western extremities of 
the Bight. The immediate coast varies 
from low plains to abrupt cliffs. The 
highest mountains are in the southeast. 
Three peaks rise to an altitude of over 
7,000 feet, slightly exceeding the White 
Mountains of New Hampshire. The re¬ 
gion represented by the horseshoe is for 
the most part well watered, and a tract 
immediately within, shaped like the cres¬ 
cent of a new moon, is fairly fortunate 
in this respect; but a large interior re¬ 
gion corresponding to the frog of the 
horse’s foot, and occupying from one- 
third to one-half of the continent, is sub¬ 
ject to drouth. This dry region reaches 
the southern shore, where, for 1,000 miles 
of seacoast, not even a rivulet empties 
its waters into the Great Bight. This vast 
interior region is broken up by ridges into 
various basins, the lowest parts of which 
are occupied by saline mud lakes, baked 
and arid, cracked at times, and flooded 
with water at others. The annual rainfall 
varies from fifty inches or more on some 
parts of the coast to almost none at all 
in some parts of the interior. The varia¬ 
tion in plant and animal life is no less 
marked. 

Plants. Geologically, Australia is an 
old continent. The rocks are old. In the 
opinion of scientists, the forms of plants 
and animals are old. The continent has 
been shut off by itself for ages. For some 
reason, its animals and plants have not 
developed. The trees are peculiar, nearly 
all hold their leaves the year around. 
There are 300 kinds of acacia trees. Pe¬ 
culiar Sbrts of oak, gum tree, cedar, and 


« 


AUSTRALIA 


pine are found. The baobab and the eu¬ 
calyptus are characteristic. One or two 
species of the latter rival the gigantic se¬ 
quoias of California in size. One felled 
near Melbourne measured six feet in diam¬ 
eter at a distance of 300 feet from the 
ground. It is stated that certain native 
lilies, tulips, and honeysuckles grow to 
be trees. Portions of the coast, particu¬ 
larly on the north, are clothed with tropic¬ 
al jungles, and a part of the interior is 
occupied by bush through which the trav¬ 
eler is obliged to chop his way. The 
bush contains so many gum-bearing trees 
that it is said to be delightfully fragrant, 
even more so than our pine forests. A 
mere list of the interesting plants found 
in so vast and varied a region would be 
wearisome. There are over 10,000 flower¬ 
ing species, including figs, mallows, night¬ 
shades, spurges, milkweeds, grapevines, 
madders, mints, orchids, mistletoes, palms, 
and sedges. The lotus and water lilies,— 
red, purple, blue, and white,—adorn the 
rivers and bayous. The variation in vege¬ 
tation found along a line extending from 
Florida to Arizona is not greater than may 
be seen in following a similar line drawn 
from a coast jungle over a coast range 
and across a grassy plain into a desert 
region of interior Australia. 

Animals. The native animals are even 
more peculiar than the plants. There are 
four species of large, fruit-eating bats, 
called flying foxes, twenty insect-eating 
bats, a score or so of land-rats, and half 
a dozen water-rats. All these, with the 
numerous fishes, seals, a horde of insects, 
and several game birds, such as the quail, 
plover, duck, goose, and pigeon, are not 
particularly different from the animals of 
other regions. In addition to these, how¬ 
ever, there are the duckbill and the spiny 
anteater that produce their young from 
eggs housed in a burrow, and 110 species 
of pouched animals utterly unknown else¬ 
where, if we except one American animal, 
the opossum. Of these peculiar Austra¬ 
lian animals, the females are provided 
with a fold of skin or pouch within which 
the young may nestle and nurse in safety. 
These pouched animals are divided into 
five classes according to their food, ^as 


root-eaters, grass-eaters, fruit-eaters, insect- 
eaters, and flesh-eaters. They vary great¬ 
ly in size from the giant kangaroo that 
weighs over 200 pounds to the active lit¬ 
tle flying fruit-eater, smaller than a mouse. 

There are several hundred Australian 
birds, including many peculiar species, such 
as the emu, related to the ostrich; the lyre 
bird, with its tail feathers spread in the 
shape of a lyre; the black swan contra 
dictory of the adage; the brush turkeys, 
the mound-birds; and the bower birds. 
Turtles, a crocodile thirty feet long, nu¬ 
merous lizards up to eight feet in length, 
forty frogs, one with blue legs and a gold¬ 
en back, and many large, harmless py¬ 
thons may be found, especially in north 
Australia; for being south of the equator, 
the tropical plants and animals are to be 
sought on the northern shore. 

The ordinary domestic animals havir 
been introduced, as well as the sparrow and 
the rabbit. The latter has proved to be a 
pest in the southeast. New South Wales 
has built 17,000 miles of rabbit proof 
fence in an endeavor to exclude the pest 
from farming districts. Camels have been 
introduced for use as pack animals in tlw 
interior. 

Native Population. The native Aus 
tralians are considered a branch of the 
black race, but they differ from those of 
Africa. Their complexion is not so black; 
the hair is described as shaggy or curly, 
not woolly; the nose is more like that of a 
European; the lips are thick, but do not 
turn outward; the legs and arms are as de¬ 
ficient in muscle, but the heel is shorter. 
They have no cattle or fields. They have rx> 
houses other than huts that may be built 
in an hour. I he families wander from place 
to place and, save as employed by whites, 
live by hunting and fishing. They are pro¬ 
ficient in the taking of game with the 
boomerang, and in throwing the javelin. 
This they sometimes launch by laying it 
on a piece of board, and flinging it with 
the motion employed in casting a potato 
from the end of a rod. They are a de¬ 
graded lot and are diminishing in number 
Perhaps 60,000 are left. 

Farly History. Australia was a 
mythical country not unlike Atlantis 2G0 



1-2. Tonga clubs. 3-4. Clubs from the Marquesas Islands. 5. Shell ornament from the Solomon 
Islands. 6. Lance with obsidian point. 7. Lance point from the Admiralty Islands. 8. Club from 
Moresby Island. 9. Jude battle-ax from New Caledonia. 10. Carved shield from New Guinea. 

HANDIWORK OF OCEANIC TRIBES. 







































































































































AUSTRALIA, COMMONWEALTH OF 


Bo C. It was not until Captain Cook 
made his famous voyage of exploration 
in 1770, and took possession in the name 
of Great Britain, that much was known 
of the region among English speaking 
people. In 1788 the British government 
inaugurated the policy of planting colo¬ 
nies of people convicted of crime. About 
70,000 convicts were deported to Austra¬ 
lia and nearly as many more to Tasmania. 
The practice did not cease until 1868. 
In the meantime the convicts were fol¬ 
lowed by their families and friends, others 
were attracted by the fertility and oppor¬ 
tunities of the country and immigration 
set in. A^bout the year 1813 pioneers dis¬ 
covered passes leading through the Blue 
Mountains to the grassy uplands, and be¬ 
gan to engage in sheep and cattle raising. 

Minerals. A discovery of gold in 
1851 created excitement and was followed 
by an influx of goldseekers to be compared 
with the stirring days of California. The 
“Welcome” nugget found at Ballarat 
weighed 2,217 ounces, and was sold for 
$52,500. Gold was found in many parts 
of the continent. 

The value of the gold produced in 1919 
was approximately $27,000,000. Gold 
production is decreasing, while silver and 
copper production shows a slow increase. 
But there is no change in the production 
of tin. 

Climate. ’The Australian summer is 
excessively hot, as it comes at the time 
when the earth is nearest the sun. The 
North American summer, on the contrary, 
comes when the earth is farthest away 
from the sun. The difference is notice¬ 
able. Being in the southern hemisphere, 
the Australian spring comes at the time 
of our fall and their fall comes at. the 
time of our spring. 

Products. The agricultural possibili¬ 
ties of Australia are very great. A large 
part of the interior has proved adapted 
to sheep raising. Three hundred million 
pounds of wool are sent to Great Britain 
annually. Hides, horns, bone-dust, frozen, 
preserved, and salted meats, and tallow 
are produced in large quantities for ex¬ 
port. The forests yield fine sandalwood, 
cedar, pine, and hard woods valuable for 


cabinet work and for building. The pearl- 
shell, dugong, oyster, and turtle fisheries 
employ a large number of people and 
yield a handsome income. The agricultur¬ 
al products are as varied as they are in 
the United States. Sugar, rum, Indian com, 
wheat, rice, sorghum, guinea-grass, grapes, 
arrowroot, bananas, sweet potatoes, tobac¬ 
co, apples, peaches, plums, almonds, olives, 
coffee, cotton, pineapples, potatoes, and 
hops are the more important. 

One of the difficulties in understanding 
so vast a territory lies in its very extent 
and variety of climate. Two plants, ani¬ 
mals, or productions named above in suc¬ 
cession, may, as a matter of fact, belong 
to districts a thousand miles apart. As 
late as 1860 the government offered a 
bonus of $50,000 to any one who would 
force his way from the south coast to the 
north coast and return again with authen¬ 
tic information about the interior. 

Australia, The Commonwealth of, 
a member of the British Empire. The 
commonwealth comprises six former colo¬ 
nies—New South Wales, Victoria, Queens¬ 
land, South Australia, Western Australia, 
and Tasmania. The union was proclaimed 
at Sydney, January 1, 1901. The six colo¬ 
nies named are now known as the “Origi¬ 
nal States.” Melbourne is the temporary 
seat of the Federal government, but in 
1910 a site for the federal capital was 
fixed upon at Canberra, in a district situ¬ 
ated in New South Wales, containing over 
1,000 square miles. A railway connects 
Canberra with Jervis Bay, which is also 
held by the federal government. 

The form of government is not essen¬ 
tially different from that of the United 
States, but it corresponds even more close¬ 
ly to the government of the Dominion of 
Canada. Legislative authority is vested in a 
governor-general, a senate, and a house of 
representatives. The governor-general is 
appointed by the crown, that is to say, by 
the king of the United Kingdom. The com¬ 
monwealth Senate consists of six senators 
for each of the Original States, chosen 
for six years. The House of Representa¬ 
tives is composed as nearly as may be of 
twice as many members as there are, sena¬ 
tors, the several states ‘dioosing represent- 


AUSTRALIA 


atives in proportion to their population. 
The House continues in office for three 
years, unless sooner dismissed. The com¬ 
monwealth has jurisdiction over railways, 
shipping, commerce, lighthouses, finance, 
defense, postal and telegraph service, mar¬ 
riage and divorce, emigration and immi¬ 
gration, weights and measures, census, and 
statistics. Earl Dudley is the present gov¬ 
ernor-general. 

Each of the Original States has a local 
legislature, consisting of a senate or a leg¬ 
islative council, and a house of represent¬ 
atives. The members of the legislative 
council of New South Wales and that of 
Queensland are appointed by the crown for 
life; otherwise state senators and state rep¬ 
resentatives are elected. 

Although nominally subject to the Brit¬ 
ish Empire, the Commonwealth of Austra¬ 
lia is both independent and radical. To 
begin with, the colonists insisted on the 
term Commonwealth, as representing a 
greater degree of independence than either 
Dominion or Colony. 

The Invalid and Old Age Pension Act 
passed in 1908 grants pensions to persons 
who are not less than sixty-five years of 
age, and who have lived in Australia at 
least twenty-five years. The grant must 
not exceed $125 a year. The pensioner’s 
whole income, including the pension, must 
not exceed twice that sum. Invalids’ pen¬ 
sions are granted to persons who become 
incapacitated after supporting themselves 
respectably for not less than five years. 
Women have the same right to vote as 
men. The Australian ballot system, 
whereby every voter retires into a booth 
and marks his ballot in private, has al¬ 
ready been adopted by a number of the 
United States. The Torrens Land System, 
whereby the government attends to the sale 
of real estate and thereby is enabled to 
guarantee title, is another Australian de¬ 
vice. The telegraph and telephone lines 
are owned by the commonwealth. Rail¬ 
roads are numerous in the more thickly 
settled portions of the country. Over nine- 
tenths of the railroads are owned by the 
commonwealth. Several thousand miles of 
railway line are of narrow gauge. 


Australia trades chiefly with the mother 
country. Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, 
and Brisbane are the chief cities of export. 
The products of the mine, the stock ranch, 
the farm, the orchard, and the jungle are 
sent abroad and exchanged for apparel, 
cloth, books, chemicals, and machinery. 

Australia is preeminently a country of 
intelligence, of opportunity, and of a fu¬ 
ture. Postal facilities, free schools, inde¬ 
pendent churches, and general thrift are 
characteristics of the commonwealth. The 
municipalities follow the example of the 
commonwealth, or rather the common¬ 
wealth has followed the example of the 
municipalities, in acquiring or establishing 
public utilities. The Australians intend 
to have no corporations taking an undue 
part in politics. Municipal ownership of 
public utilities is usually a wise measure. 

As a result of the World War, Australia 
was given by the League of Nations a man¬ 
date to administer all the islands in the 
Pacific south of the equator that formerly 
belonged to Germany, with the exception of 
the Samoa group—alloted to New Zealand. 
Of these islands, the most important, for¬ 
merly known as the Bismarck Archipelago, 
is now called New Britain Archipelago. 
The mandate includes the former German 
possessions in New Guinea. 

Statistics. The following statistics are 
the latest to be had from trustworthy 


sources: 

Land, area, square miles . 2,974,581 

Forest area, acres . 92,500,000 

Population (1921) . 5,436,794 

Aborgines . 60,000 

Chief Cities: 

Sydney . 897,640 

Melbourne . 784,000 

Adelaide . 255,318 

Brisbane . 209,699 

Perth . 155,129 

Hobart . 50,000 

Number of states . 8 

Members of state senate. 36 

Members House of Representatives 75 

Salary ,of Governor-General ... $45,000 

Bonded indebtedness .$1,807,740,112 

National revenue .. $173,473,061 

Farm area, acres . 19,346,925 

Improved land, acres . 16,651,974 

Wheat, bushels . 45,970,000 

Oats, bushels . 12,559,000 

Corn, bushels . 6,764,000 





















AUSTRALIAN BALLOT—AUSTRIA 


Barley, bushels . 4,288,000 

Hay, tons . 2,989,000 

Sugar cane, tons . 1,350,000 

Potatoes, tons . 294,000 

Sugar beets, tons . 13,000 

Grapes, tons . 139,000 

Butter, pounds . 165,648,791 

Wine, gallons . 7,649,000 

Wool, pounds . 663,249,000 

Domestic Animals: 

Horses . 2,421,000 

Cattle . 12,711,000 

Sheep . 75,554,000 

Swine . 696,000 

Total exports . $660,145,000 

Total imports . $816,665,000 

Gold mined, ounces . 943,190 

Lead and silver, value. $30,000,000 

Copper, value . $5,000,000 

Tin, value . $5,000,000 

Coal, value . $30,000,000 

Skins and hides exported, value.. $15,000,000 

Beef exported, value . $15,000,000 

Miles of railway . 23,295 

Teachers in public schools. 24,177 

Pupils enrolled . 764,980 


Australian Ballot System. See Aus¬ 
tralia; Ballot. 

Austria, a small country of central 
Europe, which, before the World War, 
constituted the western part of the Dual 
Monarchy, Austria-Hungary. The present 
Austria, with an area of 30,716 square 
miles, is a constitutional republic, pro¬ 
claimed on November 12, 1918. The 
boundaries were determined by the Treaty 
of St. Germain, September 10, 1920, and 
the constitution was adopted in October of 
the same year. Austria is bounded by 
Germany, Jugo Slavia, Czechoslovakia 
Italy and Switzerland, and includes terri¬ 
tory corresponding roughly to the former 
provinces of Upper and Lower Austria, 
Northern Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia 
and Vorarlberg. In 1920, the population 
of Austria was 6,139,197. 

Topography. After Switzerland, Aus¬ 
tria is the most mountainous European 
country, being traversed by ranges of the 
Eastern Alps. The highest peaks are in 
the old Tyrol, where the scenery is as bold 
as is that of Switzerland. The principal 
waterway of Austria is the Danube, flowing 
across the country from west to east, and 
navigable throughout. Other important 
rivers are the Waag, March, Mur, Inn and 
Enns. In the mountains are numerous 
beautiful lakes, large and small. 


Industry. Austria is rich in natural 
resources, possessing deposits of iron and 
coal, an abundance of agricultural land and 
mountain pastures, and extensive forests of 
valuable timber. About forty per cent of 
the working population of Austria is en¬ 
gaged in husbandry and forestry. The 
farms are for the most part small, but are 
intensively cultivated. The live stock and 
dairying indutsries are also important. 

Mining contributes greatly to the coun¬ 
try’s wealth. Anthracite and soft coal, and 
iron ore are the principal minerals, while 
lead and silver, gold, zinc, copper and salt 
are found in smaller quantities. 

Manufacturing is largely confined to the 
production of iron and steel, textiles, paper, 
jewelry, musical instruments, silk, automo¬ 
biles, lumber, brewery and distillery prod¬ 
ucts, flour, shoes and tobacco products. 

Education. Elementary education is 
free, and compulsory between the ages of 
six to fourteen years, and in 1919 was pro¬ 
vided by 4,102 schools. Secondary educa¬ 
tion is also well provided for; there were, 
in 1919, 37 normal schools; lower and 
higher schools of forestry and agriculture, 
besides numerous schools of technology, 
commerce and art. Austria has three uni¬ 
versities—Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck, to 
each of which are attached several tech¬ 
nical colleges. 

History. The former territory of Aus 
tria was first known in history as parts of 
various Roman provinces. In 791 Charle¬ 
magne made it the eastern part of his em¬ 
pire. The name, indeed, is derived from 
the German Oester Reich, or eastern em¬ 
pire. Under the rule of a famous family 
called the House of Hapsburg, which came 
to the throne in 1282, Austria became the 
first power in Europe, and may be so re¬ 
garded until it was deposed by Napoleon. 
The house of Austria had sufficient in¬ 
fluence to control the election of the old 
German, or Holy Roman, emperors for 
several centuries. By marriage and other¬ 
wise, Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands 
were brought, for a time, under one 
crowned head. Emperor Charles V. in¬ 
herited nearly the half of Europe. After 
Napoleon’s day Austria became the leading 
power in a new German confederacy; but 


























AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 


it was opposed at every turn, and was 
finally excluded by Prussia after the Seven 
W eeks’ War of 1866. At the height of her 
power Austria was a source of fear to all 
her neighbors, but at one time or other she 
lost a large amount of territory, formerly 
held in Saxony, Bavaria, Switzerland and 
Italy. 

When, in the fall of 1918, the imminence 
of the break-up of the old Dual Monarchy 
was felt by all, the Germans of Austria 
announced their right to self-determination. 
Radical elements in the government and 
among the populace carried on a powerful 
agitation for an independent Austria. 
Efforts to avoid this end were futile. The 
present Republic of Austria proclaimed in¬ 
dependence from Old Austria in October, 
1918. On November 11, 1918, Emperor 
Charles abdicated, and on the following 
day the Republic was formally declared. 
A constitutional assembly was elected and 
the new constitution drafted. 

Social and economic shocks followed the 
separation; shifting political winds rocked 
the country to and fro. In town and 
country incompetent but well-intentioned 
party organizations interfered in adminis¬ 
tration. Soviet republics were set up, at 
Budapest, in March, and at Munich, in 
April. Famine and misery added to the 
confusion, until at last Austria’s plight 
became so pitiable that neutral and former 
enemy countries extended all possible as¬ 
sistance—especially economic—to ( save the 
country from absolute chaos. Union with 
Germany cannot be effected without the 
consent of the League of Nations. Aus¬ 
tria’s currency steadily depreciated, and 
complete economic ruin still faces the 
country. Several nations have renounced 
their liens upon the unfortunate Republic, 
but even so, her fate is still doubtful. Po¬ 
litical stability and unstinting economic 
assistance are all that can save her. 

Statistics. The following statistics are 
the latest to be had from trustworthy 
sources: 


Land area, square miles. 30,716 

Population (1920) . 6,139,197 

Chief cities: 

Vienna . 1,841,326 

Graz . 157,644 

Linz . 94,072 


Innsbruck . 55,650 

Salzburg . 36,749 

Number of provinces . 8 

Members of federal council. 46 

Members of national council.... 175 

State revenue .$18,665,000,000 

Bonded indebtedness .$23,338,600,000 

Farm area, acres. 4,088,196 

Wheat, bushels . 6,452,000 

Rye, bushels . 12,661,000 

Barley, bushels . 4,160,000 

Oats, bushels . 12,016,000 

Hops, pounds. 90,000 

Sugar beets, short tons .... 15,432 

Beans, bushels . 85,000 

Domestic Animals: 

Horses . 243,000 

Cattle . 1,505,000 

Oxen . 214,000 

Sheep . 2,000,000 

Swine . 6,000,000 

Output of raw silk, pounds. 165,000 

Output of lignite, tons . 2,408,865 

Output of anthracite, tons. 132,864 

Output of iron ore, tons. 465,032 

Output of pig iron . 100,035 

Imports, tons . 6,666,071 

Exports, tons . 1,449,300 

Miles of railway.■ 3,940 

Teachers in public schools. 30,667 

Pupils enrolled . 914,258 


Austria-Hungary, often called the 
Dual Monarchy, was, before the World 
War, a country of central Europe—the 
largest European country after Russia. 
It had an aera of 261,242 square miles, 
and a population, in 1910, of 51,390,233. 
The states of Austria and Hungary were 
independent of each other, each having its 
own constitution, administration and par¬ 
liament, the bond of union being a common 
ruler—a member of the House of Haps- 
burg, wdio bore the titles of King of Hun¬ 
gary and Emperor of Austria. 

The organization of the army in a gen¬ 
eral w T ay corresponded to that of Germany, 
but it was peculiar, in that Hungary main¬ 
tained an army, Austria maintained an 
army, and Austria-Hungary maintained a 
third army. Every young man was re¬ 
quired to perform two or three years of 
active military service away from home, 
and, in addition, report for drills and such 
other duties as were required long enough 
to bring his entire service up to twelve 
years. The great amount of military serv¬ 
ice required of the young men was one 
reason for emigration. The Austria-Hun- 
garian army numbered about 350,000 men. 



































AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION—AUTOMOBILE 


By an agreement between these two 
states concluded in 1867 and renewed every 
ten years, affairs common to the two states 
and administered by common ministries 
were: Foreign affairs, military and naval 
affairs; and finance. The Dual Monarchy 
collapsed at the close of the World War. 

See Austria ; Hungary. 

Austrian Succession, See Maria 
Theresa. 

Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 
The, a series of papers by Oliver Wendell 
Holmes. They were published in The At¬ 
lantic Monthly in 1857-58, appearing im¬ 
mediately afterward in book form. Twen¬ 
ty-five years before, Dr. Holmes had con¬ 
tributed two papers under the title of The 
Autocrat of the Breakfast Table to The 
New England Magazine, a short-lived 
Boston publication. He now decided to 
“shake the same bough again, and see if 
the ripe fruit were better or worse than the 
early windfalls.” Until the appearance of 
these papers, Dr. Holmes was known chief¬ 
ly as a medical lecturer, a local wit, and 
writer of verse. The Autocrat, as he is 
frequently called, now became famous. 
Holmes himself declared that Lowell, in 
demanding a contribution for the Atlan¬ 
tic, awoke him “from a kind of literary 
lethargy in which he was half slumbering.” 
In form The Autocrat of the Breakfast 
Table somewhat resembles The Spectator 
of Addison and Steele. It has the flavor 
of conversation, but is largely a mono¬ 
logue—the talk of a thoughtful and 
learned man enlivened with bright fancy 
and keen humor. A few quotations will 
give a hint of pleasing qualities: 

As to clever people’s hating each other, I 
think a little extra talent does sometimes make 
people jealous. 

Talk about conceit as much as you like, it 
is to human character what salt is to the ocean; 
it keeps it sweet, and renders it endurable. . . . 
When one has had all his conceit taken out 
of him, when he has lost all his illusions, his 
feathers will soon soak through, and he will 
fly no more. [But] it does not follow that I 
wish to be pickled in brine because I like a 
salt-water plunge at Nahant. 

Do I think that the particular form of lying 
often seen in newspapers, under the title, From 
our Foreign Correspondent, does any harm?— 
Why, no,—I don’t know that it does. I suppose 


it doesn’t really deceive people any more than 
the Arabian Nights or Gulliver’s Travels do. 
Sometimes the writers compile too carelessly, 
though, and mix up facts out of geographies, 
and stories out of the penny papers so as to 
mislead those who are desirous of information. 

You never need think you can turn over any 
old falsehood without a terrible squirming and 
scattering of the horrid little population that 
dwells under it. 

Boston State House is the hub of the Solar 
System. You couldn’t pry that out of a Boston 
man if you had the tire of all creation straight¬ 
ened out for a crowbar. 

Put not your trust in money, but put your 
money in trust. 

Passion never laughs. The wit knows that 
his place is at the tail of the procession. 

Every person’s feelings have; a front door and 
a side door by which they may be entered. . • • 
Be very careful to whom you trust one of the 
keys of the side door. 

The brain-women never interest us like the 
heart-women: white roses please less than red. 


There are few books that leave more dis¬ 
tinctly the impression of a mind teeming with 
riches of many kinds. . . . The Autocrat , with¬ 
out being a profound book, may be a very profit¬ 
able one. They greatly err who find in it only 
the crackling of thorns under a pot; the thorns 
are there and they crackle, but there is also 
something in the pot.—Bronson, American Liter¬ 
ature . 

See Holmes. 

Automaton, a contrivance that imitates 
the actions of a person or animal. The 
most familiar automaton is perhaps the 
cuckoo clock. -The celebrated clock in the 
Cathedral of Strasburg has several auto¬ 
matic features, such as the apostles bowing 
at the feet of Christ, etc. In 1738 a 
Frenchman made a figure that played a 
piece of music on a flageolet. Other 
similar contrivances have been made. 

Automobile, au-to-mo'bil, a road vehi¬ 
cle carrying its own motive power. It is 
a nineteenth century realization of the 
prophecy made by the ingenious medieval 
monk, Roger Bacon, “We will be able to 
propel carriages with incredible speed 
without the assistance of any animal.” The 
theory of the automobile was known to 
Solomon de Coste of Normandy in 1641. 
He wrote a book on the propulsion of 
carriages by steam power, and was cast 
into a Paris madhouse for it by Cardinal 
Richlieu. 



AUTOMOBILE 


The history of transportation is filled 
with examples of man’s devotion to the idea 
of a self-propelled vehicle, from the days 
when Homer wrote of Vulcan making the 
“twenty-wheeled tripods” that, spirit 
moved, would obey the beck of the gods. 
The motorist who today rides smoothly and 
silently in a high-powered automobile, or 
“motor car,” along highways especially pre¬ 
pared for his convenience, enjoys the fruit 
of a long series of inventions. In Holland, 
as early as 1600, a road carriage with sails, 
propelled by the wind, made a trial run 
along the coast with 28 people on board; 
and mechanical propulsion was first pro¬ 
posed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1680, in the 
form of a steam carriage to be moved by 
the reactive effect of a jet of steam issuing 
from a nozzle at the rear of the vehicle. 
In the eighteenth century many experi¬ 
ments were made with steam, and Cugnot, 
a French engineer, produced in 1770 a 
steam road carriage that is still in existence. 
This was followed by a notable period of 
steam-coach construction in England, 
which lasted until about 1836, when it/ 
ended through the opposition of farmers 
and stage-coach drivers, who claimed that 
the steam vehicles frightened their horses. 

This opposition, no doubt, set back the 
development of the steam automobile for 
fifty years. In 1870 a clockwork omnibus 
was constructed and tried in New Orleans; 
but it was not until the high-speed gas 
engine, operated on the principle of the 
Otto cycle, was produced in 1884 by Gus¬ 
tave Daimler, a German engineer, that the 
modern period of motor-car development 
began. Carl Benz, about the same time, 
built a gas engine to be applied to a three¬ 
wheeled motor carriage, and by the year 
1894 there were a number of carriages in 
Europe and America which could be driven 
at speeds of 10 to 15 miles an hour. In 
the meantime M. Serpollet had invented 
his water-tube boiler for propulsion of car¬ 
riages by steam, and made a successful test 
on the road in 1894. Electric vehicles also 
began to appear about the same time on 
both sides of the Atlantic, and the word 
“automobile,”' at first disliked, began to 
come into popular use, at least in America. 
The British prefer the word “motor car,” 


or, for short, “motor.” The term is applied 
to pleasure vehicles only, the usual name 
for commercial or freight vehicles being 
“motor truck” or “lorry” in England, and 
“camion” in France. 

Modern automobiles are grouped in three 
classes, according to the motive power used. 
These are (1) vehicles propelled by in¬ 
ternal combustion engines, using gasoline 
or some other petroleum product as fuel; 
(2) electric vehicles, propelled by electric 
motors supplied with current from storage 
batteries; and (3) steam vehicles, driven 
by an engine supplied with steam from a 
convenient form of boiler heated by oil or 
compressed fuel. There are several makes 
of successful steam vehicles in use in 
America, while electric vehicles are largely 
used by city folk but have a limited range 
of operation, due to the necessity for 
periodic recharging of the batteries. The 
machine mostly used is the gasoline auto¬ 
mobile, which has done much to raise the 
standards of living in this and other coun¬ 
tries and is now an almost indispensable 
adjunct of farm as well as urban life. A 
small gasoline automobile, which is manu¬ 
factured literally by the million, is now 
within the reach of almost every American 
family; and there are other makes to suit 
all lengths of pocketbook. 

The first automobile race in America was 
held under the auspices of the Chicago 
Times-Herald on Thanksgiving Day, 1895, 
and was won by Charles Duryea, a pioneer 
in American automobiling. His vehicle was 
of the buggy type, with high wheels, 
equipped with single-tube pneumatic tires, 
the first use of air tires in auto service in 
America. The motor was a two-cylinder 
four-cycle engine of about inch bore 
and 4^2 inch stroke. Many features found 
in present day automobiles were embodied 
in this Duryea vehicle, which is preserved 
in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington. 
It had the fixed front axle with steering 
knuckles at the ends, the center lines of 
which were inclined outwardly at the 
bottom so as to point to the ground at the 
point of contact with the tire. This gave 
practically irreversible steering and pre¬ 
vented vibration of the steering lever. The 
motor was fed by a spray carburetor of the 


AUTOMOBILE 


constant-level, overflow type, and ignited 
by make-and-break electric spark. The 
engine shaft stood vertical with the flywheel 
on the lower end, the surface of which was 
used as a friction driving disk. Under this 
was the cross countershaft, with small 
sprockets on its ends and chains running 
back to large sprockets on the rear wheels. 
This shaft carried a large driven drum, 
and between the face of the driving disk 
and driven drum a short belt was fed by 
the shifting lever, which permitted wide 
variations of speed, as in modem friction- 
drive vehicles. An up-and-down movement 
of the steering lever actuated the shifting 
device, making a one-hand control as simple 
as driving a horse. 

In modern gasoline automobiles the 
power is usually transmitted through a 
friction clutch, train of gears, and propeller 
shaft to a differential gear inclosed in the 
rear line axle, whence it is conveyed to the 
driving wheels. This is known as the 
shaft-drive system and is generally used 
for light and medium-powered cars. The 
chain-drive system, somewhat similar to 
that of the early Duryea machine, is pre¬ 
ferred for heavy commercial vehicles which 
do not use a worm drive or screw gear as 
a means of transmitting power from the 
gear box to the rear axle. English pleasure 
vehicles generally use the worm drive, but 
the shaft drive preferred in American prac¬ 
tice is clean, positive, mechanically simpler, 
and needs no troublesome lubrication. 

Gasoline motors used in road vehicles 
are usually w r ater cooled, and comprise two, 
four, six, eight, and sometimes as many as 
twelve cylinders, cast in blocks, with water 
jackets, combination valve chambers, and 
an intake manifold for fuel gas. In some 
cases air-cooling is used with notable suc¬ 
cess, and obviates the difficulty of water 
freezing in winter, besides making a lighter 
engine. For water cooling a radiator is 
necessary to subdivide the fluid which cir¬ 
culates around the cylinders and valve 
chambers, and bring every channel into 
close contact with the air tubes. A driven 
fan keeps up an air movement more rapid 
than that of the car itself and increases the 
radiation. The control of the motor by 
spark and throttle is effected by levers on 


the steering post, and steering is done by 
means of a wheel instead of the long lever 
originally used. This lever, however, sur¬ 
vives in electric automobiles. Foot levers 
throw the clutch in or out, apply the brake, 
and control the fuel supply, as a substitute 
for the hand throttle or gas lever. A hand 
brake is also used for emergency stops. 
Self-starting and lighting apparatus is also 
provided by means of a storage battery. 

Power is developed in the gasoline engine 
by taking a charge of fuel mixed with air 
into the cylinders, compressing it, and 
igniting it so that it will burn, and produce 
heat and pressure. This pressure is exerted 
on the pistons, which turn the crank shaft 
and through various connections the rear 
wheels. The ignition of the mixture is 
obtained universally today by the use of an 
electric spark. To produce this spark at 
a desired point in each cylinder a spark 
plug is employed. Practically all automo¬ 
bile engines use the jump spark. In the 
jump spark type of plug there are two 
metal points projecting into the cylinder. 
These points are insulated from each other 
electrically by means of a porcelain or 
mica sleeve and the ends of the points are 
set so that there is a space of about 1-32 of 
an inch between them. A very high elec¬ 
trical pressure is generated and admitted 
to the spark plug by means of a wire which 
is attached to the terminal communicating 
with one of the points. The pressure is 
sufficient to cause the electricity to jump 
the small gap separating the points, causing 
an electric spark. It is this spark which 
ignites the gas in the cylinder. 

To generate this high pressure or high 
voltage current there are two general sys¬ 
tems employed: First, the high tension 
magneto, which is entirely self-contained 
and generates current only when the engine 
is running. This system is used on very 
few cars today. The second system, or 
battery ignition system, has come into gen¬ 
eral use because the battery is required for 
lights and starting and is therefore avail¬ 
able for ignition purposes. In the battery 
system a low pressure current, usually of 
six volts, is supplied by the battery to an 
induction coil. This coil is so constructed 
that it tranforms or changes this low 


AUTUMN—AVALON 


pressure to the high pressure required by 
the spark plug. In order to obtain the 
spark it is necessary to have the low press¬ 
ure primary current that flows from the 
battery through the coil interrupted, and 
for this purpose interrupter points are pro¬ 
vided. These are included in the igniter, 
which also has provision for distributing 
the higher pressure secondary current to 
the different cylinders, as a spark is re¬ 
quired by each. In modern battery systems 
the current drawn from the battery for 
ignition is replaced by a generator when¬ 
ever the engine is running. When the 
engine is idle or turning at very low speed 
its current is drawn from the battery. 

In recent years the automobile industry 
in the United States has become of vast 
importance, employing hundreds of fac¬ 
tories in the manufacture of passenger and 
freight vehicles, bodies, parts, and acces¬ 
sories. The manufacturing tendency is 
toward the output of closed vehicles for 
passenger use, these including limousines, 
sedan, and coupes in the highest style of 
the coach builder’s art. The banner year 
of the industry in the United States up to 
1922 was in 1920, when a total of 2,205,000 
cars and trucks were manufactured. In 
1921 production fell off to 1,823,100, but 
in 1922 the total output of cars and trucks 
reached the amazing figure of 2,527,000, 
with a wholesale value of $1,558,567,000. 
The number of employees in motor ve¬ 
hicle plants and allied lines in 1922 was 
2,431,400, this industry thus taking first 
rank in the United States. Statistics 
showed that this country then had 81 per 
cent of the world’s total registration of 
motor vehicles, the number of cars known 
to be in use January 1, 1923, being 

12,750,000. Of the total registration of 
motor vehicles in the United States there 
are 10,250,000 passenger cars and 1,250,000 
trucks; while on the farms of the country 
there are 3,300,000 cars and 200,000 trucks. 
The automobile industry uses 20 per cent 
of the total supply of rubber, 30 per cent 
of the plate glass supply, and 20 per cent 
of the aluminum supply. The gasoline 
consumed in the United States by automo¬ 
biles in 1922 was 5,300,000,000 gallons. 
There were 400,000 carloads of automobile 


freight shipped by railroad during the year. 
Truly a marvel of industrial achievement 
in little more than a quarter of a century, 
with a public demand for automobiles still 
far from satisfied. 

Autumn, the third season of the year— 
following the summer-—the fall of the year. 
Astronomically, it extends from the au¬ 
tumnal equinox, September 22d, to the 
winter solstice, December 21st. In Amer¬ 
ica, as popularly understood, it comprises 
September, October, and November. In 
Great Britain it is held to come and end 
a month earlier. The term, fall, is con¬ 
sidered an Americanism. It has reference 
to the falling of leaves. In the northern 
hemisphere autumn is the season of har¬ 
vest, of ingathering. The poet Spenser 
has described the season in joyous lan¬ 
guage: 

Then came the Autumn all in yellow clad. 

As though he joyed in his plenteous store, 

Laden with fruits that made him laugh, full glad 
That he had banished hunger . . . 

Upon his head a wreath, that was enrolled 
With ears of corn of every sort, he bore; 

And in his hand a sickle he did hold, 

To reap the ripening fruits the earth had yold. 

Avalanche, the fall of a mass of ice 
or snow from a mountain slope. Ordinary 
avalanches are of frequent, even momen¬ 
tary, occurrence in mountain regions, but 
they are ordinarily so small or so far above 
the line of habitation that they do no 

harm. Occasionally, however, immense 
accumulations slip loose and go crashing 

down through the forests into the valley 
below. The Union Pacific Railway pro¬ 
tects long stretches of its tracks with 
strongly framed snow sheds calculated to 
uphold the weight of snow that comes 
sliding down all winter. The region most 
noted for avalanches, or at least the region 
in which they have been studied most 
closely, is that of the Alps. Mountain 
climbers regard the danger from ava¬ 
lanches as the greatest risk they take. 

Avalon, av'a-lon, or Avilion, a-vil'ion, 
in Celtic romance, an island in the western 
seas. It was regarded as an earthly para¬ 
dise to which the souls of great heroes, 
like King Arthur, were borne at death. 
A castle built of loadstone stood on this 
Isle of Souls and was the abode of Ober- 


AVERNUS—AVICENNA 


on and Morgan le Fay. The word Ava¬ 
lon means literally “Place of Apples.” The 
apple was the only important fruit known 
to the northern nations; hence the Welsh 
gave this name to their soul-kingdom, as 
indicative of a high degree of enjoyment. 
The Land of the Blessed and the Vale of 
Avalon were also terms applied to this 
mythical island. In the Idylls of the King 
Tennyson tells us that it had been prophe¬ 
sied that Arthur should never die, 

He passes to the Isle Avilion, 

He passes and is healed and cannot die. 

In the last Idyll', Arthur, wounded, says 
to Sir Bedivere: 

I am going a long way 
With these thou seest—if indeed I go— 

For all my mind is clouded with a doubt— 

To the island-valley of Avilion; 

Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, 
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies 
Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns 
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea, 
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound. 

Avernus, a-ver'nus, a small lake in 
Campania, Italy, not far from Naples. 
It was believed by the ancients to be the 
entrance to the infernal regions. The lake 
fills the crater of an extinct volcano. It 
is very deep, and was formerly surrounded 
by immense and gloomy forests. Owing to 
poisonous vapors arising from its waters, 
no animal life was found on its shores, 
and birds attempting to fly across it were 
killed. Avernus is situated, moreover, 
the volcanic region near Vesuvius, where 
the earth is frequently shaken by impris¬ 
oned vapors. Strange rumbling noises are 
heard. It is not strange that the fables 
concerning the world of shades should have 
centered here. The lake, it is said, has 
lost its wild and desolate appearance in 
modern times. 

Averroes, a-ver'6-ez, a Saracenic physi¬ 
cian and philosopher. He lived about 
1126-1198. He was born at Cordova, 
Spain, the capital city of western Moham¬ 
medanism. He came of an ancient and 
noble family. His father was the high 
priest and the chief judge of the city. 
Averroes is known chiefly as an admirer 
of Aristotle and Galen, to an examination 
of whose doctrines he devoted ten large 
volumes. He was called “the soul of 


Aristotle.” He left also a digest on medi¬ 
cine, in which, among points of interest, 
he calls attention to the freedom of small¬ 
pox patients from a second attack. This 
medical digest, really a textbook on medi¬ 
cine, is known as the Colliget. It is be¬ 
lieved that Averroes understood neither 
Greek nor Syrian. He read Aristotle in 
an Arabic translation. Averroes left his 
writings in Arabic manuscript. They 
ruled supreme in medicine for several cen¬ 
turies. The University of Padua, Italy, 
was called the seat and center of “Aver- 
roist Aristotelianism.” After the inven¬ 
tion of printing the writings of this emi¬ 
nent man passed through many Latin edi¬ 
tions. Some fifty editions were printed at 
Venice. Over a hundred editions were is¬ 
sued between 1480 and 1580. Manu¬ 
script copies in the Arabic of the greater 
part of his writings are preserved in the 
library of the Escurial and other libraries. 

Ave Maria (Latin Hail Mary), a form 
of address to the Virgin Mary, embodying 
a plea for intercession. It is used by Roman 
Catholics in connection with the Lord’s 
Prayer. The salutation of the Archangel 
Gabriel (Luke I. 28) to Mary: “Hail, 
(Mary) full of Grace, the Lord is with 
thee;” then follows the address of Mary 
to her cousin Elizabeth (verse 42), 
“Blessed art thou among women, and 
blessed is the fruit of thy womb;” after 
which comes the third phrase: “Holy 
Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners 
now and in the hour of our death.” These 
three form the “Hail Mary,” the last 
phrase being added in the fifteenth century, 
popularly traced to Italy and St. Dominic. 
The present form was first used in 1514. 
The daily use of the whole prayer was 
ordered by Pius V. in 1568. The 
“Hail, Mary,” was added to the Lord’s 
prayer, it is thought, in the eleventh or 
twelfth century. 

Aviation. See Airship. 

Avicenna (980-1037), a famous Ara¬ 
bian physician. He died at Hamadan, 
Persia. He wrote a system of medicine, 
which was practically an Arabian presen¬ 
tation of Greek medicine as given in 
the treatise of Galen. His works were 
translated into many languages and were 


I 


AVIGNON—AVON 


venerated in European universities. At 
one time an authority, Avicenna is now for¬ 
gotten. At one time as familiar to schol¬ 
ars as Darwin or Tennyson, today Avicen¬ 
na is scarcely a name. See Galen. 

Avignon, a-ven-yon', a French city. 
It is situated on a beautiful plain on the 
east bank of the Rhone. It is the chief 
town of the department of Vaucluse. The 
particular site of the city was determined 
by a precipitous rock rising from the river’s 
edge. This rock was no doubt at one 
time the site of a castle, in the shelter of 
which the town grew up. The walls of 
the city are among the best preserved in 
Europe. They are surrounded by extensive 
boulevards, occupying the space once de¬ 
voted to protective ditches. Avignon was 
an important post in the time of the Roman 
Empire. Many Roman antiquities are pre¬ 
served in the museum. 

The city was a part of the early kingdom 
of Burgundy, after which it was for a 
time one of the many petty republics. 
From 1309 to 1377 the popes, elected and 
controlled by French influence, resided at 
Avignon. This seventy years is spoken of 
as “The Babylonian Captivity of the 
Church.” French anti-popes kept the sem¬ 
blance of a papal court here until 1418. 
The chief building of the city is the palace 
of the popes. It covers an area of an 
acre and a quarter. It was used for a 
long time by the French for military bar¬ 
racks and was much abused, but it has 
been restored. Avignon was papal terri¬ 
tory from 1348 until wrested from the 
church by the French at the time of the 
French Revolution. Petrarch resided in 
Avignon for a time. The Laura of his 
sonnets is said to have been buried in 
the church of Cordeliers. Although de¬ 
stroyed long ago, guides still claim to show 
her tomb to visitors. 

The modern town has a multitude of 
antique houses, situated on narrow, crooked, 
not altogether savory streets. The city 
is the center of the silk industry. Raising 
silk worms, reeling raw silk, and weaving 
silks, velvets, and ribbons occupy the ma¬ 
jority of the inhabitants of the district. 
There are also manufactures of paper, 
leather, hats, and jewelry. The population 


of the city and district is 49,304. 

Avignon is subject to dry African winds. 
One of these is known as the mistral. 
According to an Italian proverb, the city 
is known as “Windy Avignon, subject to 
plague without the wind, and plagued with 
the wind when it has it!” 

See Vaucluse; Petrarch; France. 

Avocet, av'o-set, a wading bird resem¬ 
bling the sandpiper. It is a native of 
North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. 
The avocet is noticeable for a slender, up- 
curved bill and webbed feet. The Ameri¬ 
can species, about sixteen inches in length, 
is an inland bird with a cinnamon colored 
head and neck, and having a white back, 
tail, and underparts. Portions of the 
wings are black. It has stilt-like, long, 
wading legs, and uses its bill in a pecu¬ 
liar manner. It wades rapidly in muddy 
water and swings the upturned end of its 
bill to and fro, sidewise like a scythe, 
searching on the bottom for snails, cray¬ 
fish, etc. It has powerful wings, often 
used for swimming. The avocet nests in 
bare marshy places, and lays three to four 
pale olive, chocolate-spotted eggs. See 
Bird. 

Avogad'ro, Amadeo (1776-1856), a 
noted professor of physics at Turin. Re¬ 
membered as the discoverer of what is 
known as Avogadro’s Law: “Equal vol¬ 
umes of all gases, under the same con¬ 
ditions as to temperature and pressure, 
contain the same number of molecules.” 

Av'oirdupois (French, to have weight), 
a system of weights based on a pound of 
sixteen ounces or 7,000 Troy grains. It 
was introduced into England from Bay¬ 
onne, France, about 1300 A. D. It has 
been inherited by the colonies of England. 
It is used chiefly for the weighing of 
coarse commodities. The principal de¬ 
nominations are the ounce, pound, hun¬ 
dredweight, and ton,—the latter consist¬ 
ing of twenty hundredweight. See Troy 
Weight. 

Avon, the name of several English riv¬ 
ers. The word is British, meaning water. 
The Upper Avon rises near Naseby, 
Northampton. It forms the border of 
Leicester. It passes through Warwick¬ 
shire and Worcestershire to the Severn 


AX—AYTOUN 


at Tewkesbury. Its valley is one of the 
most beautiful in England. Rugby, War¬ 
wick, and Stratford-on-Avon are situated 
on its banks. It is about 100 miles in 
length. This is the Avon of Shakespeare, 
the stream from which he is called the 
“Avon Bard.” Lower Avon, or Bristol 
Avon, flows into the Severn after it has 
become so broad that it is known rather 
as Bristol Channel. Bath and Bristol are 
on its banks. It is about eighty miles 
in length. This is the Avon on which the 
ashes of Wyclif were cast. The East 
Avon flows into the English Channel. It 
is about sixty-five miles in length. Salis¬ 
bury, with its ancient cathedral, is situ¬ 
ated at the junction of the Wily and 
Bourne with the East Avon. 

Ax, a long-handled implement for chop¬ 
ping wood. The axes of primitive man 
appear to have been chips of flint, sharp- 
edged stones, and bones or clam shells 
tied to handles by thongs of rawhide. The 
islanders of the southern Pacific Ocean, it 
is said, still chop with stone axes. The 
next step in ax making was the casting of 
axes of bronze. As soon as the art of 
casting had been learned, it was easy to 
cast axes with a hole in the head for the 
insertion of the handle. The third step 
was the making of iron and steel axes. 
In colonial days axes were made by the 
village blacksmith. The factory-made ax 
is a recent development. The greatest ax 
factory in the world, the Collins, of Con¬ 
necticut, turns out an average of 5,000 
axes daily. To save frequent grinding 
lumbermen now prefer to use a double- 
bitted ax, having a straight handle. Euro¬ 
pean wood-choppers prefer a wide-bladed 
ax, much like a broad-ax. They do -not 
like the American ax. Gladstone was 
fond of chopping. An American friend 
sent him an American ax, but the states¬ 
man did not like to chop with it. 

Axiom, a truth requiring no proof. The 
term is sometimes applied to any impor¬ 
tant and generally accepted truth, as, in 
political economy, “cheap money drives 
good money out of circulation”; in logic, 
“he who admits a principle admits its con¬ 
sequence” ; in natural history, “mountain 
ranges restrict and direct migrations”; in 


geography, “an increased altitude lowers 
the temperature”; in sociology, “character 
is affected by associations,” etc. The term 
is restricted more properly, however, to 
self-evident mathematical truths, as, for 
instance: “The whole is greater than any 
of its parts”; “Things which are equal 
to the same thing are equal to each other”; 
“Two straight lines cannot enclose a 
space,” etc. Euclid recognized fifteen 
geometrical axioms. 

Ayr, or Ayrshire, a county of south¬ 
western Scotland. It is known best as 
the dairy district in which the Ayrshire 
cow originated. It is a productive county 
of varied resources. A countryside rhyme, 
the better understood if we bear in mind 
that “coo” mean cow and “woo” wool, 
assigns honors to the various districts of 
the county as follows: 

Kyle for a man; 

Carrick for a coo: 

Cunningham for butter and cheese; 

And Galloway for woo. 

Historically the shire is the former 
scene of many of the daring deeds of 
Wallace and Robert Bruce. It was over¬ 
run by Cromwell and saw its full share 
of stirring events in Covenanter times. In 
literature Ayrshire is celebrated as the 
“Land of Burns.” His Bonnie Doon rose 
in its hills. His mountain daisy, “wee, 
modest, crimson-tipped flow’r,” and his 
field mouse, “timorous beastie,” were seen 
here. 

Auld Ayr whom ne’er a town surpasses 
For honest men and bonnie lasses 

is the county seat. The Tam O’Shanter 
inn now has above the door a picture of 
I am “weel mounted on his gray mare 
Meg,” and within are the very “chair and 
caups” used by Burns’s heroes. The wa¬ 
ter Ayr and the Auld Brig are here, but 
the New Bridge has been replaced by a 
safer structure. In the near vicinity the 
traveler may see “Alloway’s auld haunted 
Kirk” and may visit the thatched cottage 
where Burns was born. See Burns; Al- 
loway Kirk. 

Aytoun, a'ton, William Edmond- 
stoune (1813-1865), an Edinburgh poet, 
humorist, and writer of short stories. He 
studied for the bar but disliked the pro- 


AZALEA—AZTECS 


fession and took to writing instead. In 
1845 he was appointed professor of rhet¬ 
oric and English literature in the Univer¬ 
sity of Edinburgh, which position he held 
until his death. In 1854 he became edi¬ 
tor of Blackwood’s Magazine. Professor 
Aytoun was the author of the Life and 
Times of Richard I, Firmilian, a Spasmod¬ 
ic Tragedy, the poem, Bothwell, and a 
novel, Norman Sinclair. His best known 
work, however, was Lays of the Scottish 
Cavaliers, which has passed through a. 
large number of editions. Stedman says 
that these ballads “rank among the wor¬ 
thiest of their class.” The Execution of 
Montrose, and Edinburgh after Flod- 
den, are probably the best of Aytoun’s bal¬ 
lads. In 1849 Aytoun married the young¬ 
est daughter of Professor John Wilson, 
better known by his pen name of Christo¬ 
pher North. A story runs to the effect that 
when Miss Wilson entered her father’s 
study to ask permission to wed, he wrote 
“With the author’s compliments” on a 
piece of paper and pinned it on her back. 
He then sent her to her lover in the par¬ 
lor, as though she were a presentation 
copy of his latest work. 

In the work of Professor Aytoun, similar in 
kind to Macaulay’s but more varied, and upon 
Scottish themes, we also discern what wholesome 
and noteworthy verse may be composed by a 
man who, if not a poet of high rank, is of too 
honest a breed to resort to unwonted styles, and 
to measures inconsonant with the English tongue. 
—Stedman. 

Azalea. See Rhododendron. 

Azores, a-zorz', a group of islands in 
the Atlantic, 800 miles off the coast of 
Portugal. Area, 922 square miles. Popu¬ 
lation, 256,291. The islands have long 
been a possession of Portugal. The name 
is derived from a Portuguese word mean¬ 
ing a hawk. The entire group is volcanic. 
Repeated eruptions and earthquake shocks 
are reported, the latest in 1867. It is 
interesting to know what plants and ani¬ 
mals are found in these rugged islands 
so far out at sea. Of 478 species of plants, 
only four grow in America, forty are 
found nowhere but on the Azores, and 
over 400 are native to the mainland of 
Europe. Tropical fruits, such as the 
orange, lemon, and banana are raised to 


advantage. Hemp and the ordinary cereal 
grains are produced. Wine and figs are 
exported. Of wild animals, the rat, mouse, 
weasel, and ferret have followed civiliza¬ 
tion. Bats are found in the cliffs. The 
coasts swarm with fish. Several species 
of birds are so numerous as to injure the 
fields of small grain seriously. A bounty 
offered for their destruction includes the 
canary. The Britannica is our authority 
for a statement that the bounty for a sin¬ 
gle year represented a long list of 420,000 
birds, including the bullfinch, chaffinch, 
redbreast, blackbird, and canary. The 
woodcock, partridge, quail, and snipe are 
found in the islands. 

Azov, Sea of, a shallow, Russian 
branch of the Black Sea. It is eighty 
miles wide and perhaps twice that distance 
in length. Area, 14,000 square miles. It 
nowhere exceeds fifty feet in depth. It 
receives the Don. It abounds in fish. 
There are several safe harbors. The wa¬ 
ters, particularly of the western part, 
are so offensive as to win the name of 
“The Putrid Sea.” The Russians have 
constructed a military road along the coast 
of Crimea. 

Azrael, az'ra-el, in Hebrew and Mo¬ 
hammedan mythology, the angel of Death. 
He is represented as watching over the dy¬ 
ing and separating the soul from the body. 
In Longfellow’s Tales of a Wayside Inn, 
the Spanish Jew’s story is entitled Azrael, 
and the Death angel appears as one of 
the characters in the tale. 

Aztecs, az'teks, a tribe of Mexican In¬ 
dians. The name is used not infrequently 
to include all Mexican Indians, but, speak¬ 
ing strictly, it applies to a single tribe 
only. The Indian name has been inter¬ 
preted to mean “heron place,” and refers 
to some former home, or else the clan name 
of the tribe. 

The first date that can be given posi¬ 
tively is 1325. In that year the Aztecs 
occupied some islands in a salty lagoon 
where the outlet of two smaller lakes 
flows into a larger one. By means of 
dikes, causeways, and walls, they built 
up these islands into a stronghold which 
they named Tenochtitlan. This old time 
Indian Venice is the modern city of Mexi- 


AZTECS 


co. About a hundred years later the Az¬ 
tecs formed a league with related tribes. 
This was in no sense an Aztec kingdom, 
or empire, but simply a robbers’ league. 
The tribes composing the Aztec Confed¬ 
eracy agreed to make raids in common 
and to divide the spoils of war systematic¬ 
ally. They subjugated eight or nine thou¬ 
sand square miles of territory, extending 
east and southeast. There were no roads 
in the modem sense of the term. The 
plundering warriors made their way out 
and home again by the merest mountain 
trails. 

The Aztecs lived in large buildings of 
many rooms, each building housing per¬ 
haps several hundred persons. Sometimes 
a number of these buildings were erected 
contiguously in order to accommodate an 
entire clan. A separate building was put 
up in which the chiefs might convene. 
Business was transacted here. The build¬ 
ings were made of adobe or of stone. They 
seem in many respects to have been like 
the pueblos of our southwestern Indians. 
The Aztec Confederacy ruled some thirty 
pueblo towns. When Cortez invaded 
Mexico in 1519 the native ruler of the 
Aztecs was Montezuma. The Spaniards 
were much surprised to find a people so 
advanced. Their previous conception of 
the American Indians had been gained 
from contact with the natives of the West 
Indies and of southern coasts. The Aztecs 
had made considerable progress. Both 
men and women were expected to marry, 
and, in fact, were required to do so. The 
land belonged to the clan, but each house¬ 
holder was given his own garden plot 
as long as he made use of it. Irrigation 
was practiced. Some progress had been 
made in the cultivation of fruits and veg¬ 
etables. 

It is claimed that floating gardens, 
towed by canoes from one part of the 
lake to another, were constructed by the 
Aztecs and still supply the City of Mexi¬ 
co with a part of its fruit and vegetables. 
They dug the soil with copper mattocks 
and made holes for their seed corn with 
sticks pointed and hardened in the fire. 
In each field a man in an elevated tower 
kept watch with stones and a sling to 


defend the crops, garden, and orchard, 
against parrots, toucans, grosbeaks, and 
sparrows,—a duty still necessary. Stone 
granaries, believed to have been con¬ 
structed prior to the Spanish Conquest, 
are still used for storage. 

Dogs, turkeys, quails, ducks, deer, rab¬ 
bits, fishes, and the axolotl were raised 
for meat. Cattle, goats, and chickens were 
not known in the New World. People of 
leisure went hunting with bows, nets, traps, 
and blow guns. Black beans, corn meal 
cakes, and chocolate were articles of diet 
and drink. The Aztecs had no butter and 
milk, but tapioca, sago, sweet potatoes, 
onions, palm tree wine, salt, pepper, to¬ 
matoes, and squashes were well known. 
They sat at meat on low benches about 
a mat on which regular meals were served. 
Cotton cloth served for scanty clothing. 
In tanning furs and bird skins they ex¬ 
celled. Their furniture was simple. Rush 
mats served for beds with a block of wood 
for a pillow. To obtain a fire, two pieces 
of dry wood were rubbed together, or fire 
might be brought from a temple in which 
it was never allowed to go out. Pine 
torches took the place of candles, and the 
pulp of a certain root was used for soap. 

The homes of the more wealthy Aztecs 
appear to have been adorned with unu¬ 
sual skill. Gaily colored tapestries of fine 
needlework were hung in the doorways. 
The women excelled in making ornamental 
featherwork, and, in particular, mantles 
formed from the skins of humming birds. 
Among the articles of domestic manufac¬ 
ture or of plunder brought home by the 
w T arriors from their raids were colored 
feathers, sacks of chocolate, cougar skins, 
birds’ wings, ingots of gold, sacks of cochn 
neal, vases of gold dust, necklaces of em¬ 
eralds, pieces of amber, rock crystal, ear* 
rings, rubber, building bamboo, arrows, 
aromatic woods, measures of honey, vases 
of ochre, copper hatchets, precious tur¬ 
quoises, writing paper, parchment, gourds, 
mats, lime, posts, birds, eagles, and beasts. 

Truth compels addition o-f the fact, how¬ 
ever, that the prizes most highly valued 
were prisoners of war. The Aztecs were 
cannibals. The prisoners were first sac¬ 
rificed, then distributed, to be eaten at 


AZTECS 


t 


feasts. Referring to this feature of Aztec 
life, the author of a very able article in 
the Americana writes: “The people were 
cannibals, and their religion was of the 
most hideous character; albeit with regu¬ 
larly organized priesthood and temples and 
altars. On one side the society touched 
the South Sea Islands, on the other it 
almost rose to ancient Egypt and was 
above Homeric Greece.” 

The accounts given of the Aztecs by 
the Spanish chroniclers are not trustwor¬ 
thy. The following statement, however, 
is too good not to be true: “Children 
were taught a useful occupation and were 
kept busy and out of mischief. Some of 
the doctrines taught the Aztec youth were: 

“Revere and salute thy elders. Mock 
not at old men, my son, nor at deformed 
people. 

“When one speaks, hear with attention 
and respect. 

“When thou talkest with anyone, take 
not hold of his garment. 

“Talk not too much, and interrupt not 
others. 

“If not silent, weigh thy words. 

“When at table, eat not too fast. 

“Live by thy work. 

“If thou growest rich, become not in¬ 
solent. 

“Lie not, for it is a sin.” 

A recent traveler says, “All at once a 
bamboo cabin, surrounded by sharp-leaved 
yuccas, and shaded by banana trees, ap¬ 
pears on the edge of the stream. A man 
of medium height, with a copper colored 


skin, a flat nose, a gentle look, coarse thick 
hair, and a beardless chin, stands at the 
threshold. Children of both sexes en¬ 
tirely naked, their stomachs distended, run 
and hide behind a woman who is occupied 
in grinding maize on a block of lava. Her 
rather gross body is covered only by a pet¬ 
ticoat scarcely reaching to the knees. You 
look with surprise at these Indians, de¬ 
scendants of the powerful race whom Cor¬ 
tez conquered and who, though humble 
and timid, have for the last three cen¬ 
turies obstinately repelled everything of 
European origin.” Thousands of these peo¬ 
ple live in villages about the city of Mexico. 
See Cortez_, Hernando. 

Azurite (from its azure color), a basic 
copper carbonate, containing about 55 per 
cent of copper and crystallizing into the 
monoclinic system. It differs in composi¬ 
tion from malachite only by containing 
more carbonic acid and less water. Azurite 
occurs in sharply defined crystals of a rich 
dark blue color, in columnar masses and 
velvet-like incrustations. It is usually 
found with malachite and other ores of 
copper. In Siberia, where it is found, it 
is cut in thin slabs and is used for table 
tops and similar purposes. 

The azurite crystals found in Arizona 
rank as gems and are much in favor. The 
Copper Queen Mine in the Bisbee district 
has produced solid masses of azurite and 
malachite, weighing several tons. Its 
original source is copper sulphide, which 
is found in the deeper portions of mines. 
Azurite is also used as a pigment. 



Baal, the chief deity of the ancient 
Canaanites. He was regarded as the male 
element of creation, the female counterpart 
being Astoreth or Astarte. The altars of 
Baal were erected on heights or on house¬ 
tops. Offerings of incense, bulls, and, on 
occasion, human sacrifices—children in 
particular—were laid on the altar. Wild 
orgies seem to have been a feature of the 
worship. In art, Baal is represented rid¬ 
ing a bull, the symbol of generative pow¬ 
er. Grapes and pomegranates are in his 
hand to denote productivity. Baal was 
worshiped also as a sun god, the source of 
life. Baal means lord or master. The 
word appears in many combinations. 
Baalzebub, or Hebrew Beelzebub, means 
“lord of flies”; Hannibal, “the lord is gra¬ 
cious” ; Hasdrubal, “the lord is helpful”; 
Baalbec, “the city of Baal,” etc. Baal or 
a counterpart had several names. In As¬ 
syria and Babylonia, Baal was worshiped 
as Bel. Among the Moabites he was 
known as Chemosh, and his chief cult was 
on Baal Peor. The Ammonites worshiped 
the same deity under the name of Moloch. 
Tyre called him Melcarth, etc. See Mo¬ 
loch. 

Baalbec, an ancient city of Syria. It 
occupied a beautiful irrigated valley in 
the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, on the high¬ 
way from Tyre to Palmyra. It is about 
thirty-four miles northwest of Damascus. 
The Greeks called it Heliopolis, both 
names meaning “City of the Sun.” Baal¬ 
bec was an important trading post of the 
Phoenicians. A part of the acropolis wall, 
dating, no doubt, from a day of Tyrian 
supremacy, yet stands. Three stones raised 
twenty feet above the ground are of enor¬ 
mous size. The smallest of the three is 
sixty-three feet long and thirteen feet 
thick. The. marvel is how these worship¬ 
ers of Baal ever quarried such stones or 
got them into position. 

In the long centuries of the present era 
the Romans crowned the acropolis of this 
city with three temples, the ruins of which 
are still the marvel of antiquarians. The 


great temple of Jupiter stood on a magnif¬ 
icent elevated platform of three or four 
acres in extent. Stately stairs rose up to 
a portico adorned with costly pillars. The 
great court of this immense temple was 
square. It was surrounded by a peristyle 
of fifty-four columns, each sixty-two feet 
high and seven feet in diameter at the 
base. At last accounts a few of these 
columns were still standing. A second 
building, The Temple of the Sun, though 
small in comparison with the first, is still 
larger than the Parthenon. Though not 
so perfect in its proportions, it must have 
been a more imposing edifice. Still a third 
ruin is that of the Circular Temple near 
by. It was built in exquisite Corinthian 
style, evincing wealth, leisure, and good 
taste. The money for such buildings came 
from the caravan trade. The labor was ex¬ 
torted no doubt from soldiers in time of 
peace, or from slaves. In 1400 Baalbec 
was plundered by Timur on his way to 
Damascus. Frequent earthquakes have 
completed the work of destruction. The 
marvelous ruins of this city, now almost 
forgotten, indicate vast commercial re¬ 
sources. Under beneficent rule and intel¬ 
ligent public policy the prosperity of Syr¬ 
ia will return. The soil and possibilities 
are there. The new cities may not oc¬ 
cupy the sites of the old cities, but there 
are dawning indications that a prosperous 
people may one day regard the ruins of 
Baalbec as interesting antiquities, and not 
as now, the symbol of utter desolation. 

From the accounts of Oriental writers, Baal¬ 
bec seems to have continued a place of impor¬ 
tance down to the time of the Moslem invasion 
of Syria. They describe it as one of the most 
splendid of Syrian cities, enriched with stately 
palaces, adorned with monuments of ancient 
times, and abounding with trees, fountains, and 
whatever contributes to luxurious enjoyment. 
After the capture of Damascus it was regularly 
invested by the Moslems, and after a courageous 
defence at length capitulated. The ransom ex¬ 
acted by the conquerors was 2,000 ounces of 
gold, 4,000 ounces of silver, 2,000 silk vests, 
and 1,000 swords, together with the arms of the 
garrison. The city afterwards became the mart 


BABBITT—BABES IN THE WOOD 


for the rich pillage of Syria; but its prosperity 
soon received a fatal blow from the caliph of 
Damascus, by whom it was sacked and disman¬ 
tled, and the principal inhabitants put to the 
sword (748 A. D.). It continued, however, 
to be a place of military importance, and was 
frequently an object of contest between the 
caliphs of L.gyp, and the various Syrian dy¬ 
nasties.— Britannica ~ 

Babbitt, or Babbitt’s Metal, an alloy 
much employed for machine boxings. This 
alloy was discovered and patented in 1839 
by a Mr. Charles Babbitt of Taunton, 
Massachusetts, a goldsmith and manufac¬ 
turer of britannia ware. Metal used for 
boxings must be tough, it must not crush 
easily, and it must possess anti-friction 
qualities. Mr. Babbitt started with twen¬ 
ty-four parts of tin for smoothness, four 
parts of copper for strength, and eight 
parts of antimony for solidity. Genuine 
babbitt is unsurpassed for ordinary jour¬ 
nal purposes. Many manufacturers use a 
greater proportion of tin. Cheaper and 
less serviceable imitations are made part¬ 
ly of lead. 

The greatest mistake in using babbitt metal 
is heating too hot before pouring. When the 
metal is hot enough to light a small pine stick, 
it is ready to pour. Never heat the metal un¬ 
til it shows red. Babbit that has been over¬ 
heated or burnt crystallizes, an^ when poured 
is brittle, hard, and not homogeneous. Never 
mix overheated metal with the good hoping to 
restore it, as such mixed metal will be brittle.— 
Popular Mechanics. 

Babcock Test, a scheme devised by 
Professor Babcock of the Wisconsin Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station in 1890, for 
determining in a simple, practical way, and 
with considerable accuracy, the per cent of 
butter fat in milk. Sulphuric acid is 
added to the milk, which has the effect of 
decomposing the solids other than the fat. 
The heat of chemical action causes the fat 
particles to collect and rise to the top, 
which is facilitated by rapid rotation in a 
machine constructed for the purpose. The 
per cent of cream can then be read directly 
from the neck of the tube, the whole opera¬ 
tion taking but a few minutes. Creameries 
make regular tests of their patrons’ milk, 
paying for it on a basis of cream value. 
A dairyman may also test the milk of each 
individual cow, and, if it does not come up 
to the standard, eliminate the animal from 


the herd. The Babcock Test has been a 
wonderful incentive to improvement in the 
dairy cow; it is a case of the survival of 
the fittest. 

Babel, the native name of the ancient 
city of Babylon, meaning Gate of God. 
According to Genesis, the children of 
Noah journeyed into the plain of Shinar 
to erect a tower, known p,s the Tower of 
Babel, which should reach unto heaven. 
They were prevented from carrying out 
their impious design through a confusion 
of tongues. Being unable to understand 
each other, they broke up into small par¬ 
ties and separated. Curiously enough, the 
cuneiform inscriptions recently exhumed 
in the ruins of the old Babylonian Library 
relate at some length the history of a lofty 
tower which came to grief,—some accounts 
say through a high wind. This is not at 
all improbable, when we recall that the 
building material of Mesopotamia con¬ 
sisted for the most part of adobe or sun- 
dried brick. The word babel has passed 
into literature to indicate a jargon of 
sounds. See Babylon. 

All great works in this world spring from the 
ruins 

Of greater projects—ever, on our earth, 

Babels men block out, Babylons they build. 

—Robert Browning. 

Babes in the Wood, or Children in 
the Wood, an old English ballad of un¬ 
known authorship. The story has been 
thought to be a disguised account of the 
alleged murder of his nephews by Richard 
III. It has been retold many times, both 
in prose and verse. It appears in a form 
long popular in S. Baring-Gould’s Nur¬ 
sery Songs and Rhymes. 

Poor babes in the wood, poor babes in the wood, 
So hard was the fate of the babes in the wood. 
When a child on the knee, how silent I’d be, 
While my mother related the story to me. 

My dear, you must know that a long time ago, 
Two poor little children whose names I don’t 
know 

Were stolen away on a fine summer’s day, 

And left in a wood, as I’ve heard people say. 
Poor babes in the wood, poor babes in the wood! 
So hard was the fate of the babes in the wood. 
And when it was night, so bad was their plight, 
The sun it went down, and the stars gave no 
light. 

They sobbed and they sighed, and they bitterly 
cried. 


BABOON—BABYLON 


And the poor little things they lay down and died. 
Poor babes in the wood, etc. 

And when they were dead, the robins so red, 
Brought strawberry leaves, and over them spread. 
And all the day long, the branches among, 

They mournfully whistled, and this was their 
song: 

Poor babes in the wood, etc. 

Baboon, a large, shaggy, fierce mem¬ 
ber of the monkey family. There are sev¬ 
eral species in* the rocky parts of Abys¬ 
sinia, Arabia, North Africa, and Cape 
Colony. The baboon has a prominent 
snout, a low forehead, and a profile to 
which the name “dog-faced” has been ap¬ 
plied. It has a heavy mane. The face 
and the buttocks are bare, and are high¬ 
ly colored—blue, scarlet, and pink. The 
arms and legs are nearly of a length, per¬ 
mitting it to go on all fours, which it 
does with a galloping motion, making un¬ 
expected speed, especially in climbing 
among the rocks. The baboon feeds in 
flocks. It lives chiefly on fruits, roots, 
birds’ eggs, and insects. It fills its large 
cheek pouch greedily with food before it 
begins to eat, in order that it may be 
able to carry away a supply in case of 
sudden alarm. A baboon has been seen 
to put eight eggs into its cheek-pouches 
at once; then take out the eggs, one by 
one, break the shell at the end, and delib¬ 
erately suck their contents. The baboon 
is about the size of a mastiff. The visit 
of a troop of these animals is greatly dread¬ 
ed by the African planter; for the baboon 
is voracious, destructive, and filthy beyond 
description. It is the most repulsive of the 
monkey family. It is strong, sullen, not 
easily tamed, and seems to have no re¬ 
deeming quality. See Monkey. 

Babylon, an ancient capital and me¬ 
tropolis of Babylonia. It appears to have 
been one of several important cities. It 
succeeded Ur of the Chaldees as the capi¬ 
tal. It was in turn supplanted by Nine¬ 
veh, and reduced to the position of a 
provincial town of the Assyrian Empire. 
In 690 B. C. it revolted, and was sub¬ 
dued by Sennacherib, who writes that he 
“pulled down, dug up, and burned with 
fire the town and the palaces, root and 
branch; destroyed the fortress and the 
double wall, the temples of the gods, and 


the towers of brick, and threw the rub¬ 
bish into the river.” Under Nebuchadnez¬ 
zar, however, the city was rebuilt. The 
later city is the Babylon of the Scriptures, 
whose ruins are still the astonishment of 
scholars. 

Just what credence is due to Herodotus 
and other ancient writers it is impossible 
to say; but we are told that the city was 
laid out in the form of a square, occupy¬ 
ing both sides of the river Euphrates. 
According to these accounts, it was sur¬ 
rounded by an astonishing brick wall 300 
feet high, 85 feet wide, and from 40 to 
60 miles in length. This wall included 
about 200 square miles of territory. A 
moat ran along the outside of the wall. 
The clay dug from the moat sufficed to 
make sun-dried brick for the wall. The 
wall was guarded by 250 towers. It was 
broad enough to allow four-horse chariots 
to turn about on it, and was pierced by 
100 brass gates hung in brazen frames. 
A wall ran along each bank of the Eu¬ 
phrates and was pierced by twenty-five 
gates. Quays led from the gates to the 
water’s edge. Ferry boats crossed the riv¬ 
er from quay to quay. A roofed bridge 
of masonry crossed the Euphrates on 
stone piers, and joined the central parts 
of the city. It was defended by a citadel 
or royal palace at each end. The city 
proper was surrounded by orchards and 
gardens watered by canals from the Eu¬ 
phrates. The building material of the 
Babylonians consisted of adobe or sun- 
dried brick, with facings of vitrified tiles 
or painted plaster for ornamentation. 
Blocks of stone, quarried in distant Ar¬ 
menia, were used only for sculpture and 
inside finish of the most expensive kind. 

The hanging gardens of Babylon were 
considered one of the wonders of the 
world. They were gardens of trees and 
flowers, planted on terraces, one upon an¬ 
other, to the height of not less than 150 
feet. Water for these plants was elevated 
by means of a device supposed to resem¬ 
ble the screw of Archimedes. The most 
noteworthy edifice was the Temple of Bel. 
It was a pyramid of eight square terraces, 
one above the other. The lowest measured 
600 feet on a side. A winding ascent led 


BABYLON 


to the topmost terrace on which stood a 
shrine containing a golden image of the 
god forty feet in height, and a golden table 
forty feet long and fifteen feet broad. 
Two smaller statues were made of the 
same precious material. The total amount 
of gold, if ancient accounts may be be¬ 
lieved, was something enormous. This, 
like all other Chaldean temples, stood with 
a corner turned toward each of the four 
cardinal points of the compass. 

The immense buildings of the Baby¬ 
lonians were made possible not only by 
the vast wealth derived from tributary 
towns and peoples, but from the taxes 
levied on merchants who resorted thither 
with their caravans from the east and from 
the west. 

Recent excavations have unearthed 
many evidences of Chaldean scholarship. 
Their literature was engraved in cunei¬ 
form characters with a sharp tool on fresh 
tablets of clay, which were afterward 
placed in a furnace and baked. Many 
collections of these tablets, including one 
of 30,000, have been found in the ruins 
of Babylon. It is said that they were 
numbered and arranged as carefully as 
any modern collection of books. When a 
student selected his numbers from a cata¬ 
log, the librarian was able to bring him 
the tablets without delay. Libraries and 
schools, universities, they might be called, 
were maintained in connection with the 
large temples. It is known that rolls 
of papyrus made from the reed which 
grows in the Euphrates as well as in the 
Nile were used also; but none of these 
have been preserved. The archives of the 
wealthy merchants contain deeds, . con¬ 
tracts, mortgages, bills of sale, promissory 
notes, and other business documents en¬ 
graved on tablets, extending, as shown by 
their dates, through several centuries. Even 
the names of business firms have been pre¬ 
served in this way. From marriage con¬ 
tracts, wills, and signatures extant, it ap¬ 
pears that a woman was legally enabled 
to own property and to carry on business 
in her own name. The duodecimal sys¬ 
tem of arithmetic and the number sixty 
appear to have been favored. Our division 
of the day and night into twelve hours 


each, of the hour into sixty minutes, and 
of the minute into sixty seconds is inher¬ 
ited from the Chaldeans. As might be 
inferred, they were astronomers and engi¬ 
neers. They divided the circle into 360 
degrees, and the year into 360 days. The 
week of seven days is also an inheritance 
from them. 

The literature of the Babylonians as it is 
preserved on these tablets is very interest¬ 
ing. It deals with conquest and pillage, 
with commercial methods, with fortune 
telling, geometry, and astronomy; with the 
healing art, with diplomacy and trading. 
Some sets of tablets are dictionaries; oth¬ 
ers are grammars, and others again are 
translations. One set found in 1902 con¬ 
tains a complete set of laws, the oldest 
legal code known. Some light is thrown 
on Babylonian customs by the penalties 
prescribed to prevent the bribery of offi¬ 
cials, or overcharges, and for the punish¬ 
ment of ignorant physicians and dishonest 
and incompetent building contractors. 

The moral literature of the Babyloni¬ 
ans parallels many of the phrases and 
thoughts, in fact, entire passages, found 
in the Hebrew Scriptures. The chronolo¬ 
gies of the two literatures agree remark¬ 
ably well. The two accounts of the deluge 
are much the same. During the war be¬ 
tween Babylon and Egypt the Israelites 
allied with the wrong side in the quarrel 
and were carried away to Babylon by Neb¬ 
uchadnezzar as a punishment for having 
entered into an alliance with Egypt. Dur¬ 
ing this period, known as the Babylonian 
Captivity, the lamentations of Jeremiah 
were written. It is small wonder that 
they show evidences of Babylonian influ¬ 
ence. 

The city stands on a broad plain, and is an 
exact square, 120 furlongs in length each way, so 
that the entire circuit is 480 furlongs. While 
such is its size, in magnificence there is no other 
city that approaches it. It is surrounded, in the 
first place, by a broad and deep moat, full of 
water, behind which rises a wall 50 royal cubits 
in width and 200 in height. And here I may 
not omit to tell the use to which the mould dug 
out of the great wall was turned, nor the man¬ 
ner wherein the wall was wrought. As fast as 
they dug the moat, the soil which they got from 
the cutting was made into bricks, and when a 
sufficient number were completed they baked the 



BABYLONIA— BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY 


bricks in kilns. Then they set to building, and 
began with bricking the borders of the moat, 
after which they proceeded to construct the wall 
itself, using throughout for their cement hot bi¬ 
tumen, and interposing a layer of wattled reeds 
at every thirtieth course of the brick. On the top, 
along the edges of the wall, they constructed 
buildings of a single chamber facing one anoth¬ 
er, leaving between them room for a four-horse 
chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are 
a hundred gates, all of brass, with brazen lin¬ 
tels and side posts. ... In the middle of the 
precinct there was a tower of solid masonry a 
furlong in length and breadth, upon which was 
raised a second tower, and on that a third, and 
so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on 
the outside, by a path which winds round. all 
the towers. . . . On the topmost tower there is a 
spacious temple.—Herodotus. 

Strabo and the historians of Alexander sub¬ 
stitute 50 for the 200 cubits of Herodotus, and it 
may therefore be suspected that the latter au¬ 
thor referred to hands, four of which were equal 
to the cubit. The measure, indeed, of 50 fathoms 
or 200 royal cubits for the walls of a city in a 
plain is quite preposterous. . . . My own belief 
is that the height of the walls of Babylon did 
not exceed 60 or 70 English feet. H. C. Raw- 
linson. 

Babylonia, in ancient geography a 
country situated in what is now the Ara¬ 
bian Empire. It included the valley of the 
Euphrates River from the vicinity of the 
modern city of Bagdad on the north to 
the Persian Gulf on the south, from the 
Arabian desert on the west to the Tigris 
River on the east. This district was not 
called Babylonia until two or three thou¬ 
sand years after it was inhabited by a civ¬ 
ilized people. It was known by many 
names, some of them given probably from 
the different states or provinces that rose at 
different times into power. Two names 
have clung to the country and people, and 
are so used as to cause considerable con¬ 
fusion. One is Babylonia, from Babylon, 
the greatest city of the region, the other 
Chaldea, from that province whose inhab¬ 
itants seem to have been of the highest and 
most forceful type. When at the summit 
of its power the Babylonian empire in¬ 
cluded also Palestine, Syria, and portions 
of Arabia. It is not to be classed, how¬ 
ever, among the conquering nations. 
Babylonia is known rather for its pursuit 
of learning and the arts of peace. In fact 
with the exception of Egypt no national 
culture is of such antiquity as that of 


Babylonia, with which Egypt must share 
the title of “Cradle of Civilization” so of¬ 
ten applied to that country. 

The history of Babylonia as a civilized 
nation is supposed to have begun about 
4500 B. C. For two thousand years or 
more from that date there were many states 
or provinces more or less independent, and 
many different dynasties. About 2800 B. 
C. “Ur of the Chaldees” became the seat of 
government; the city of Babylon comes in¬ 
to prominence five centuries later. It is to 
this early period and to its civilization that 
the term Chaldean monarchy and 
Chaldean civilization are applied most 
commonly and properly. About 1250 B. C. 
Babylonia was conquered by Assyria and 
remained subject thereto until 625 B. C. 
when Nabopolassar, viceroy of Babylon 
under the Assyrian king, threw off the As¬ 
syrian yoke and established the Second or 
Later Babylonian Empire, which continued 
until the Persians under Cyrus captured the 
city of Babylon. This period is called also 
the Later Chaldean Empire, but it seems 
more fitting that at this time the more unit¬ 
ed nation should take its name from its great 
city rather than from any one province or 
people. In the cuneiform inscriptions the 
name Chaldean appears no earlier than the 
ninth century, B. C. See Chaldea; Baby¬ 
lon ; Assyria ; Arabia. 

Babylonian Captivity, The, in Jew¬ 
ish history, a period of exile at Babylon. 
Jerusalem lay near the great highway 
from Egypt to Babylonia. It was a fine 
point of diplomacy for the Hebrews to 
know whether to ally themselves with the 
inhabitants of the Nile or of the Euphrates. 
Great armies went back and forth on what 
may be termed this war path of nations, 
and treated the Hebrews as allies or foes, 
according to their latest conduct. In 605 
B. C. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem 
and carried off many prisoners. In 597 
B. C. the siege was renewed and the He¬ 
brew king, with 10,000 of the more promi¬ 
nent persons, was carried to Babylon. In 
586 B. C. the destruction of the temple 
and the city was completed and the remain¬ 
ing inhabitants were massacred or carried 
off to Babylon. Here they worked and 
wept for two generations, until, in 536 


BABYLONIAN LITERATURE—BACCHUS 


B. C., Cyrus captured Babylon and gave 
the Jews permission to go home and re¬ 
build their city. It is said that 43,000 
men, women, and children took up the 
long march across the Euphrates. The 
Jews had been settled as colonists rather 
than slaves. Like the Pilgrims in Holland, 
they had maintained their language, fami¬ 
ly government, and forms of worship. 
Cyrus bade the priests of Bel restore the 
sacred vessels which had been taken from 
Jerusalem. These included 5,000 utensils 
of gold and silver, baskets, goblets, cups, 
and knives. A grandson of the old king 
Jeconiah led them. 

Not all Jews desired to leave their Meso¬ 
potamian homes, but, according to M. Dun- 
eker, in his History of Antiquity, “it was 
a considerable multitude which left the 
land ‘beyond the stream,’ the waters of 
Babylon, to sit once more under the fig- 
tree in their ancient home, and build up 
the city of David and the temple of Je¬ 
hovah from their ruins; 42,360 freemen, 
with 7,337 Hebrew men-servants and maid¬ 
servants; their goods were carried by 435 
camels, 736 horses, 250 mules, and 6,720 
asses. The exodus of the Jews from Baby¬ 
lon is accompanied by a prophet with cries 
of joy, and announcements filled with the 
wildest hopes. . . . ‘Go forth from Baby¬ 
lon,’ he cries: ‘Fly from the land of the 
Chaldeans! Proclaim it with shouts of 
joy, tell it to the end of the earth and 
say: ‘Jehovah hath redeemed his servant 
Jacob.’ ‘How beautiful upon the moun¬ 
tains are the feet of him that bringeth 
glad tidings, that publisheth peace, that 
saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Up, 
up, go forth, touch no unclean person; 
go forth from among them. Cleanse 
yourselves, ye that bear Jehovah’s vessels. 
Ye shall go forth in joy, and be led in 
peace; the mountains and the hills shall 
break forth before you into singing, and 
all the trees shall clap their hands. Je¬ 
hovah goes before you and the God of 
Israel brings up the rear.’ ” 

The seventy years of residence at Baby¬ 
lon immediately preceding the release is 
known as the Babylonian Captivity. For 
“Babylonian Captivity of the Church,” 
see Avignon. 


Babylonian Literature. See Litera¬ 
ture. 

Bacchus, or Dionysus, the Greek god 
of wine. The name Bacchus was origi¬ 
nally the god Dionysus, but came to be 
used alone by both Greeks and Romans, 
and is the name by which the wine god 
is known usually. There are many per¬ 
plexing stories in regard to this god. His 
worship appears to have been more or 
less identified with that of Apollo, while 
some authorities claim that the Phoenicians 
introduced the worship of Dionysus as a 
tauriform sun god into Greece. However, 
it is certain that he was most venerated 
in his character of wine-god, and in him 
was worshiped the fruitfulness of the vine 
and also the generative power in nature. 

Dionysus, in the Greek myth, was the 
son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cad¬ 
mus. Hera, jealous of Semele, disguised 
herself as an old woman, and persuaded 
Semele to request Zeus to show himself 
to her in all his glory. Semele made Zeus 
promise to grant her any request she might 
make. Before he could check the words 
upon her lips she asked to see him in his 
splendid array, as he appeared in heav¬ 
en. Zeus sadly consented. He appeared 
to her only in his “lesser panoply,” but 
this was too much for mortal vision and 
the fires of his glory consumed Semele. 
The infant Bacchus, however, was saved, 
for cool ivy sprang up about him, protect¬ 
ing him from the radiance. Then he 
was intrusted to Hermes, who carried him 
to Nysa in India, where the Nysaean 
nymphs cared for him. Thus he received 
his name of Dionysus, or god of Nysa. 
When grown to a beautiful youth, he in¬ 
vented a beverage from grapes and trav¬ 
eled through the whole world, teaching 
the cultivation of the vine and the manu¬ 
facture of wine. Where he was welcomed 
and treated with hospitality, the people 
were rewarded. If he was ill treated they 
were punished. 

This journey is represented as a march 
of triumph. The god rode in a chariot 
drawn by lions or panthers, and was ac¬ 
companied by Silenus, his foster father, 
the god Pan, and a host of men, women, 
and satyrs, who, crowned with ivy, and 


BACCHUS—BACH 


brandishing the thyrsus, a rod twined with 
ivy, danced around him, singing and shout¬ 
ing. When he reached Thebes, his birth¬ 
place, his divinity was denied. Bacchus 
inspired the women with a fury which 
drove them forth to join his followers, 
but Pentheus, the king, took arms against 
him. Now Pentheus’ mother, Agave, was 
among the revelers. Bacchus caused her 
son to appear to her in the form of a wild 
beast. Gathering her companions to her aid 
she rushed upon Pentheus and slew him. 
On the way to Naxos, Bacchus fell into 
the hands of a band of sailors who took 
him for a king’s son on account of his 
purple robe and attempted to carry him 
away. They fettered him, but his bonds 
fell off. Ivy grew up about the ship in 
midocean and stopped its progress. The 
sailors -went mad and sprang into the sea, 
where they became dolphins. On the 
island of Naxos, Bacchus found and mar¬ 
ried Ariadne, who became thenceforth im¬ 
mortal. Bacchus descended into Hades, 
found Semele and led her to Olympus, 
where she too became immortal. In the 
terrible war with the giants, Bacchus 
proved a great fighter and saved the gods 
from ruin. Zeus greeted him with cries 
of “Evan, evoe,” “Well done, my son,’’ 
which words were afterward used as a 
salutation to Bacchus. 

In Boeotia, the god was associated with 
a great number of incidents, and here was 
the chief seat of his worship, whence it 
spread to other parts of Greece, to Asia 
Minor, and to Italy. As the productive¬ 
ness of nature was worshiped in Bacchus, 
it was natural to observe in connection 
with him the decay of vegetation in au¬ 
tumn and its revival in spring. So yearly 
Bacchus was supposed to be slain, to de¬ 
scend to the lower world, and to return 
again. This is doubtless the myth which 
connected his worship with that of Apollo. 
For the most part the worship of Bacchus 
was connected with the wildest orgies, 
which lasted several days and nights. The 
days were given up to musical and dramat¬ 
ic entertainments, the nights to feasting 
and revels. The procession was an im¬ 
portant part of the celebration, commemo¬ 
rating Dionysus’ triumphal march from 


India. The Bacchanalia or Dionysia, as 
these festivals were called, seem to have 
been celebrated in Attica with peculiar 
solemnity, and to have reached their high¬ 
est expression in the choragic literary con¬ 
tests, for which were written most of the 
masterpieces of the Grecian poets. 

In early art, Bacchus is represented as 
a bearded man of full age, the figure com¬ 
pletely draped. Frequently he has small 
horns on his head, a symbol of force. The 
thyrsus rod and the drinking cup are his 
symbols, and, among animals, the bull, 
goat, lion, and panther. This representa¬ 
tion is called the “Indian Bacchus,” be¬ 
cause it was supposed to have originated 
in India. Other authorities claim that the 
beard was given him in Lydia. In later 
art, Bacchus is a beautiful, black-eyed 
boy, his golden hair crowned with ivy, 
the figure very lightly draped with a pur¬ 
ple robe or a panther’s skin. Sometimes, 
too, he is represented as an infant. 

In the noted palace of the Borghese 
(bor-ga'se) family at Rome, there is a 
famous statue of Bacchus with a bunch 
of grapes in his hand and a panther at his 
feet. 

Bacchus that first from out the purple grape 
Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine. 

—Milton. 

Bach, bak, Johann Sebastian (1685- 

1750), a celebrated German musician. He 
was born at Eisenach. A soprano choir 
singer, court organist, and director of con¬ 
certs at Weimar, in 1723 he became can¬ 
tor to St. Thomas’ School at Leipsic. 
Bach was a noted composer and organist. 
His compositions are too difficult to be 
popular; but in reputation and merit he 
has no rival unless it be Handel. Bach 
played before Frederick the Great at Pots¬ 
dam, and was appreciated by musical cir¬ 
cles throughout Europe. Bach was a skill¬ 
ful pianist. He is credited with having 
taught the modern method of tuning pian¬ 
os, and the method of playing by which 
all the fingers are used. He was a beau¬ 
tiful singer, but lost his voice while a 
young man. The Bach family is decidedly 
musical. Ancestors and descendants of 
Sebastian to the number of not less than 
120 have been organists in cathedrals. 


BACHEL LER—BACOH 


See Organ. 

Bacheller, Addison Irving (1859- ), 

an American novelist and journalist, was 
bom in New York state. He was edu¬ 
cated at St. Lawrence University. He be¬ 
gan his career as journalist on the Brook¬ 
lyn Times. He has written a number of 
novels, among which are Eben Holden, 
D’ri and I, The Man for the Ages and 
In the Days of Poor Richard. 

Bachelor’s Degree, an old academic 
distinction, the significance of which has 
varied in different countries. In the 
fifteenth century it was looked upon as a 
minor degree. Generally, it has been be¬ 
stowed at the end of the first stage in a 
liberal education, and the recipient is sup¬ 
posed to be versed in certain fundamental 
branches. 

The original form of the degree was 
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), and it is usually 
essential that the taking of this degree 
should precede that of Master of Arts or 
Doctor of Philosophy. In the United 
States there is the degree of Bachelor of 
Law (L.L.B. or B.L.), Bachelor of Di¬ 
vinity (B.D. or S.T.B.), Bachelor of 
Medicine, (M.B.), etc. The schools of 
science have given the degree of Bachelor 
of Philosophy (as at Yale, since 1852) ; 
Bachelor of Science (as at Harvard, since 
1851), and the degree of Bachelor of 
Letters is conferred on those who have 
specialized in modern literature. This lat¬ 
ter distinction, however, is growing rare, 

Bacillus. See Bacterium. 

Backgammon, a game played with 
dice, men, and a board. The board is 
marked off into four quarters or tables, 
each containing six points, corresponding 
to the six spots of the dice. The first 
or entering table may be at either play¬ 
er’s left hand, the home table at either 
player’s right. The points are counted 
from left to right in that half of the 
board containing the entering table, from 
right to left in the other half, although 
the men of both players move in the same 
direction throughout the game. Thus the 
last point a man may reach is point one 
of the home table. The players sit oppo¬ 
site each other, one having fifteen black 
men, the other as many white. The play- 


ms take turns in throwing the dice. The 
player places men on the points, or moves 
them forward from point to point, ac¬ 
cording to the spots thrown with the dice. 
If, for instance, he throws a one and a four, 
he places a man on the first point and 
another on the fourth point of the first 
quarter. As soon as his men are all on, 
he begins to move them forward. A throw 
of a two and a three, for instance, au¬ 
thorizes a player to move one man two 
points forward and another three. If 
doubles are thrown, the player doubles 
his play. That is, if he throws two fours, 
he has the right to play four fours. He 
may then play the “opposites” or four 
threes. In addition he has the privilege 
of a second throw. Under the rules of the 
game a man occupying a point alone may 
be removed from the board at any time 
that the opponent is authorized to occupy 
the position, in which case it must make 
the journey anew. A man that has 
been thrown off by one’s opponent must 
be replaced before any moves can be tak¬ 
en. A point defended by two or more men 
may not be occupied by one’s adversary. 
In the last quarter the men may be re¬ 
moved, or “thrown off” instead of moved 
forward. For instance, if five and four 
be thrown, a man may be thrown from 
point five and one from point four. If 
the proper point contains no men, and 
none stand on a higher point, the player 
may “throw off” from the next lower point 
that contains men. He wins the game 
whose men make the journey from the 
first quarter or table to the last and are 
thrown off before his opponent’s. The 
game is largely one of chance, but skill 
may be acquired in blocking the progress 
of one’s opponent, while still advancing 
one’s own men. The origin of the name 
is unknown. The probabilities are, how¬ 
ever, that the word is of Anglo-Saxon 
origin, meaning “back game,” or a game 
in which the men are likely to be sent back. 
The game originated, it is thought, in the 
tenth century. Backgammon is mentioned 
by Chaucer, and has always been regarded 
as a reputable game. 

Bacon, Francis (1561-1626), an Eng¬ 
lish statesman, philosopher, and man of 


BACON 


letters. He was well born. He was edu¬ 
cated at the University of Cambridge, and 
was privileged to travel abroad, particu¬ 
larly in France. In the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth and James I, he was a member 
of Parliament, and rose to high position. 
In Parliament he spoke so well, says Ben 
Jonson, that “the fear of every man that 
heard him was that he should make an 
end.” In 1617 he was lord keeper of 
the seal, and in the next year was made 
lord high-chancellor. He was created 
Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans. 
In spite of his position, liberal salary, and 
honors, extravagance led him into doubt¬ 
ful practices. He was accused before the 
House of Lords of receiving money for 
appointments to office, and for grants of 
trade privileges. He acknowledged his 
guilt and was sentenced to pay a fine of 
$200,000 and to be imprisoned in the 
tower during the pleasure of the king. He 
was soon released, but he was ever after 
disqualified to hold public office. Bacon 
claimed that though he had accepted mon¬ 
ey he had not allowed it to influence him. 
His friends claimed that his punishment 
was prompted bv Puritan zeal and parti¬ 
sanship. 

Bacon possessed a brilliant and pow¬ 
erful mind. He lived in a day when sci¬ 
entific notions were crude. He fell into 
grievous errors, holding that the sun re¬ 
volves about the earth, etc., but he was a 
close student of literature, of men, and of 
nature. He protested against traditional 
authority in science. In the history 
of the development of science, he is re¬ 
garded as one of the earliest and foremost 
advocates of the principle that accurate 
scientific knowledge is to be obtained, not 
from men and not from books, but 
from nature. He was an advocate of ex¬ 
perimental science, and held views which 
have ripened into the laboratory of 
the school and college. “We should not,” 
said he, “like the spiders, which draw 
their threads from themselves, derive our 
ideas merely from ourselves; nor should 
we, like the ants, merely collect; but we 
should, like the bees, collect and elabo¬ 
rate.” Much of his writing was done in 
Latin, then the language of the learned. 


He is said to have got his death from a 
cold caught in packing a fowl in snow, 
to see whether it would keep or not. Here 
we have the germ of the refrigerator. 

Although we have seen that Bacon him¬ 
self was not proof against temptation, 
and that he was far from an honest man, 
his Civil and Moral Essays are by far his 
best work, and constitute his strongest 
claim to remembrance. His essays Of 
Truth, Of Revenge, Of Envy, Of Travel, 
Of Great Place, Of Dispatch, Of Friend¬ 
ship, Of Expense, Of Ambition, Of Usu¬ 
ry, Of Vainglory, and others are unsur¬ 
passed. He seems to know how to fortify 
others where he himself was weak. To 
give his valuable sayings would be to 
quote his essays entire. A few sentences 
must serve as examples: 

Studies serve for delight, or ornament, and 
for ability. 

Crafty men contemn studies, simple men ad¬ 
mire them, and wise men use them. 

Some books are to be tasted, others to be 
swallowed, and some few to be chewed and 
digested. 

Reading maketh a full man, conference a 
ready man, and writing an exact man. 

No pleasure is comparable to the standing up¬ 
on the vantage-ground of truth. 

Prosperity is not without many fears and dis¬ 
tastes ; and adversity is not without comforts and 
hopes. 

The remedy is worse than the disease. 

Chiefly the mould of a man’s fortune is in 
his own hands. 

Virtue is like a rich stone,—best plain set. 

God Almighty first planted a garden. 

SAID OF BACON. 

Next to Shakespeare the greatest name of the 
Elizabethan Age is that of Bacon. 

He had the sound, distinct, comprehensive 
knowledge of Aristotle, with all the beautiful 
lights, graces, and embellishments of Cicero.— 
Addison. 

The great secretary of nature and all learn¬ 
ing.—Walton. 

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, 
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. 

—Pope. 

To ordinary eyes the Chancellor was at the 
summit of human success. Jonson had just sung 
of him as one “whose even thread the Fates spin 
round and full out of their choicest and their 
whitest wool,” when the storm burst. The Com¬ 
mons charged Bacon with corruption in the ex¬ 
ercise of his office. It had been customary among 


BACON 


Chancellors to receive gifts from successful suit¬ 
ors after their suit was ended. Bacon, it is 
certain, had taken such gifts from men whose 
suits were still unsettled; and though his judg¬ 
ment may have been unaffected by them, the fact 
of their reception left him with no valid de¬ 
fence. He at once pleaded guilty to the charge. 

I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am 
guilty of corruption, and do renounce all de¬ 
fence.” “I beseech your Lordships,” he added, 
. be merciful to a broken reed.” The heavy fine 
imposed on him was remitted by the Crown; but 
the Great Seal was taken from him, and he 
was declared incapable of holding office in the 
State or of sitting in Parliament. Bacon’s fall 
restored him to that position of real greatness 
from which his ambition had so long torn him 
away. “My conceit of his person,” said Ben 
Jonson, “was never increased towards him by 
his place or honours. But I have and do rever¬ 
ence him for his greatness that was only proper 
to himself, in that he seemed to me ever by his 
work one of the greatest men, and most worthy 
of admiration, that had been in many ages. In 
his adversity I ever prayed that God would give 
him strength: for greatness he could not want.” 
His intellectual activity was never more con¬ 
spicuous than in the last four years of his life. 
He had presented “Novum Organum” to James 
in the year before his fall; in the year after it he 
produced his “Natural and Experimental His¬ 
tory.” He began a digest of the laws, and a 
History of England under the Tudors,” revised 
and expanded his “Essays,” dictated a jest book, 
and busied himself with experiments in physics. 
It was while studying the effect of cold in pre¬ 
venting animal putrefaction that he stopped his 
coach to stuff a fowl with snow and caught the 
fever which ended in his death.—John R. Green, 
Short History of the English People. 


U 


Bacon, Mrs. Josephine Dodge Das- 

kam (1876-), an American writer. She 
was born in Stamford, Connecticut, and 
received her education at Smith College. 
She is a writer of popular short stories 
for the magazines. She excels in stories 
about children. The Imp and the Angel 
is natural, amusing, and, in parts, beauti¬ 
ful. Other books from her pen are Smith 
College Stories, A Sister’s Vocation. 
Among her most recent books are The 
Open Market, While Caroline ivas Grow¬ 
ing, On Our Hill y and Square Peggy. She 
has also compiled Best Nonsense Verse. 


Bacon, Nathaniel (1647-1676), a lead¬ 
er of the Virginian colonists. He was a 
native of Suffolk, England. He was a 
distant relative of Francis Bacon. He 
was well born and well educated, but 
emigrated to Virginia in a spirit of ad¬ 


venture. Here he became a member of the 
governor’s council, and an especial cham¬ 
pion of the cause of the common people. 
Affairs were not going well in the colony. 
Charles II had granted Virginia to two 
worthless favorites, the Earl of Arlington 
and Lord Culpepper. Their agents were 
demanding payment for land from all 
settlers who could not show perfect title. 
Berkeley, the governor, was an aristocrat. 
He had no sympathy with the settlers. He 
had not called for the election of a new 
assembly in thirteen years. The assembly 
that held over transacted business to his 
liking, and he did not want a new ele¬ 
ment to get control. The vestries, the 
governing boards of the various parish 
churches, had become self-elective bodies, 
“close corporations.” To add to their 
grievances, the settlers were harassed by 
the Indians. Cabins were set on fire at 
night, and the inhabitants were massacred, 
scalped, or carried into capitivity. Berke¬ 
ley was carrying on a profitable trade 
through agents with the Indians, and ap¬ 
peared to be indifferent. He levied taxes 
of 2,000 pounds of tobacco for the build¬ 
ing of forts, and allowed his officials to 
embezzle the proceeds. The atrocities 
of the Indians and the stubborn refusal 
of the government to take measures for 
the protection of the settlers became so 
exasperating that the people rose in revolt 
under Bacon, and proceeded to chastise 
the Indians. They then refused to lay 
down their arms until the governor should 
issue a proclamation of amnesty. A new 
election was called. Bacon was chosen 
a member. The new assembly widened 
the suffrage, gave the freemen of each 
parish the right to choose the vestries, and 
made other changes of a popular nature. 
Under pressure, Governor Berkeley not 
only pardoned Bacon, but promised him 
a commission to raise a volunteer army. 
Bacon suspected that the governor was 
planning to arrest him. He left James¬ 
town secretly but came back at the head 
of 500 men. Berkeley proclaimed him a 
rebel. Bacon’s forces besieged Jamestown 
and reduced it to ashes. In the midst of 
their altercations Bacon died of a fever. 
Many of the popular leaders were executed 


BACTERIUM 


erful electric light is as unfavorable. So- 
called X-rays are without effect. Of the 
solar rays green and violet are most fatal. 

Bacteria of various kinds are found in 
air, in dust, in soil nine feet deep, in rain, 
in snow, in ice, in the water of wells and 
cisterns, and in the ocean, lakes, and riv¬ 
ers. It is difficult to get artesian water 
free from bacteria. They are numerous 
in ponds and pools containing decaying 
weeds or grass. They fairly swarm in 
water contaminated by sewage. Rotting 
or decaying animal or vegetable matter 
of every description is, as we shall see, 
full of bacteria. Sour milk, rancid butter, 
ripening cheese, decaying fruit, everything 
that is undergoing fermentation or putre¬ 
faction, thoroughly advertises the presence 
of bacteria. When w r e say of an article 
of food that it is spoiling, the chances are 
that bacteria are destroying it. 

All bacteria live by absorbing material. 
A bacterium coming into contact with food 
suited to it, soaks in food and splits into 
bacteria that soak in more food and split 
as before. For the present purpose it is 
sufficient to say that bacteria feed on ani¬ 
mal and vegetable matter. Some sorts 
feed on dead plants, others draw on liv¬ 
ing plants. Some feed on living animals. 
Comparatively few live on live plant or 
live animal tissue. Not all decay is due 
to bacteria. Chemical decomposition may 
take place from a variety of reasons; but 
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the 
rotting animal or vegetable substance is 
simply giving way to bacteria. We can 
fruit “to keep it from the air,” in reality 
to keep bacteria out of it. We dry beef 
“to keep it,” in reality to render it so dry 
and hard that bacteria cannot get a foot¬ 
hold. We put specimens in alcohol and 
formalin not only to keep them moist, 
but because bacteria cannot live in these 
liquids. We silo our cornfodder to keep 
bacteria out of it. 

Bacteria in their right place are exceed¬ 
ingly useful, indeed indispensable. Straw 
and all that class of dressing for land, 
known as stable manure, would be useless 
a mere incumbrance in the fields, were it 
not that bacteria attack it vigorously and 
break it up and rot it into material suit¬ 


able for plant food. What we call plants, 
at all events field crops, would not grow, 
were it not that countless myriads of bac¬ 
teria have manufactured plant food ready 
for absorption by their roots. When one 
passes rank grass or luxuriant vegetation 
anywhere, he may know that the roots 
of the plants are feeding where scaven¬ 
ger bacteria have at some time prepared 
food for them. Unless plants were re¬ 
turned to the earth and then worked over 
by bacteria, rank plant growth would soon 
use up about all the plant food available, 
and immense tracts now fertile would be¬ 
come barren. Plant life needs the help 
of bacteria to work over plant and ani¬ 
mal material so that it can be used for 
plant food again. Animals eat plants and 
other animals, but plants live on air, wa¬ 
ter, and soil. Ordinarily speaking, plants 
cannot use old plant and animal material 
till it has been reduced by bacteria to soil. 

Bacteria are indispensable in the arts. 
The retting of flax, jute, hemp, and cocoa- 
nut fiber is brought about by the action 
of bacteria. The gums are dissolved, 
leaving the fibers free. Sponges, drip¬ 
ping from the sea, are piled up to rot; 
this is to allow bacteria to consume the 
animal portion. Vinegar cannot be made 
without bacteria. The curing of tobacco 
is the work of bacteria. The ripening of 
cream and the maturing of cheese .are due 
to bacterial action. If not allowed to go 
too far, butter is improved by bacteria. 
Nitrogen-producing bacteria, living in 
colonies on the roots of clover, enrich the 
soil. Bacteria are the great enemies of 
plants and animals, but they are also in¬ 
dispensable. We need to know how to 
derive profit from useful bacteria, and how 
to prevent harmful bacteria from doing 
damage. 

In making war on dirt and dust, the 
housekeeper is fighting bacteria. Repeated 
examinations show that the air of a city 
is full of them. A greater number are 
found near the ground than at an eleva¬ 
tion. Anything which raises dust in¬ 
creases the number of bacteria in the air. 
Flies carry bacteria about on their feet; 
bees among their hairs, and birds among 
their feathers. Wherever dust can lodge, 


BACTERIUM 


there are bacteria. They flourish in dirt 
and filth. They cannot multiply unless 
moisture is present, together with some 
organic substance. 

The modern physiologies give gener¬ 
ous space to the subject of bacteria. Bac¬ 
teria cling to the surface of the body, to 
clothing, under the finger nails, in the 
hair, in crevices or cracks of the skin. The 
bodies of animals and of man contain 
them in the mouth, stomach, and intes¬ 
tines ; but they are never in the blood, 
in the muscles, glands, or any other organ 
or cells in the body of a healthy animal 
or person. There are invariably six kinds 
of bacteria in the mouth, although from 
eight to twenty-two different kinds are 
often found. Inflammation and soreness 
of the gum is usually due to the spiral 
bacteria of the mouth. Bacteria are, also, 
the cause of the decay of the dentine of 
the teeth. For this reason, it is highly 
important that the hard enamel covering 
of teeth be kept intact. Painful ulcers and 
abscesses of the roots are also caused by 
the activity of mouth bacteria. Mouth 
bacteria also give rise to a kind of poison 
called ptomaine. It is these ptomaine-pro¬ 
ducing bacteria that are dangerous when 
the skin is broken by the bite of a dog 
or other animal, or by the bite of a human 
being. They are feared by physicians al¬ 
most as much as the hydrophobia bacilli 
of the mad dog. 

In the mouth, stomach, and intestines, 
certain bacteria aid in digestion of foods 
by producing a substance called an enzyme 
which breaks up and liquefies solid foods, 
like the white of egg, and meats, and even 
the hard parts of vegetables. 

Peculiar bacteria, to which we now 
come, live by breaking down the cells of 
living plants and animals. A living ani¬ 
mal is made up of cells. Bones are com¬ 
posed of cells that are all hardened wall, 
no contents, we might say. The softer 
the part of the body, the more liquid the 
cell contents. Most bacteria, as we have 
said, are powerless to attack life. We eat, 
drink, and breathe them without knowing 
or needing to know it. But there are a 
few bacteria or microbes or bacilli, as we 
choose to call them, that attack living cells 


with energy,—-bacteria whose presence fs 
dangerous. It is one of the most marvel¬ 
ous discoveries of the nineteenth century 
that many fatal diseases are due to nothing 
more nor less than the presence of immense 
colonies of bacteria that turn the sick per¬ 
son’s body into waste until death ensues. 
It is thought quite possible that a person in 
perfect health and spirits can not be taken 
possession of by any of these bacteria, 
but there are few persons who are not lia¬ 
ble, at some time, or in some weak spot, 
to be seized by one disease or another. 

It is the theory of modern medicine that 
each contagious or infectious disease is 
the working of some particular bacterium 
peculiar to that disease. Consumption, or 
tuberculosis, as it is called more accurate¬ 
ly, is the work of a kind of bacterium that 
breaks down the cells of the lungs. The 
dread bacteria of leprosy attack a person’s 
extremities and literally consume their vic¬ 
tims inch by inch. The list of diseases 
caused by bacteria is not short. The bac¬ 
teria of disease are usually, but not always, 
of the rod-shaped group called bacilli in 
the plural and bacillus in the singular. We 
have accordingly the bacillus of pneumo¬ 
nia, the bacillus of tuberculosis, of lepro¬ 
sy, of glanders, of lockjaw, of syphilis, of 
typhoid fever, of dysentery, of diphtheria, 
of ulcers, of the bubonic plague, and of 
other diseases. The bacterium of cholera 
is a peculiar member of the spiral group. 
To say that a disease is contagious is to 
say that the bacilli of one person are like¬ 
ly to be transferred to another person and 
reestablish themselves in dangerous num¬ 
bers. 

Fortunately the membranes covering all 
parts of the human body, inside as well as 
outside, are not suitable lodging places, 
hosts, we say, for bacteria. The bacterium 
of disease needs to come in contact with 
fresh, living cells to gain a hold. The 
disagreeable pus that is found in wounds 
is a bacterial product. If a cut or wound 
be made without introducing bacteria and 
bacteria be kept out, no pus can form. 
Surgeons sterilize their instruments, boil 
them, wash their hands in hot water, use 
sterilized towels and lint, and even refrain 
from breathing into an incision lest bac- 


BADEN—BADEN-POWELL 


teria be introduced. If bacteria be kept 
out, a cleanly cut will heal rapidly with¬ 
out ulceration or inflammation. It is not 
the surgeon’s knife that is to be feared, 
but the bacteria. 

A large part of modern medicine con¬ 
sists in efforts to prevent disease, to pro¬ 
tect people from bacteria. Boards of health 
guard our water supply that we may not 
drink typhoid germs. Streets and alleys 
are ordered cleaned that they may not 
breed fever bacilli. Cleanliness is one of 
the laws of health. The cure of conta¬ 
gious diseases is sought by establishing 
conditions under which the bacillus ceases 
to thrive and degenerates or disappears 
from the system. See Serum, Therapy. 

Baden, a province of the present Ger¬ 
many. It is a country of irregular shape 
and width extending along the eastern 
bank of the Rhine from a point below 
Mannheim to Lake Constance. Its area is 
5,823 square miles with a population 
of 2,010,728, or 345 to the square mile. 
Approximately one-third of the people 
are Protestant, the rest are Catholics. The 
archbishop resides at Freiburg. The Gothic 
cathedral built of red sandstone is con¬ 
sidered one of the most beautiful examples 
of architectural art in Germany. The 
largest city is Mannheim. 

The chief commercial city, Mannheim, is 
situated at the head of regular navigation 
on the Rhine. Heidelberg, just above, is 
the seat of the university of that name, 
and is noted for the ivy-clad remains of 
Heidelberg Castle, the most impressive 
ruins of the sort in Europe. The buildings 
face the castle yard, and include the finest 
example of Renaissance architecture in 
Germany. They divide the visitor’s atten¬ 
tion with a cellar at one corner containing 
the famous Heidelberg Tun, a monster 
wine cask. It is the largest in the world, 
and is capable of holding 49,000 gallons. 
The university has been one of the most re¬ 
nowned in all Europe. Melanchthon, 
Helmholtz, and Bunsen were professors 
here. It still has a large library and an 
able faculty. Many American scholars 
have studied at Heidelberg. 

Carlsruhe, meaning Charles’ rest, is the 
capital of the province. The castle of the 


former ruler, who was called a grand duke 
instead of a king, stands in the cen¬ 
ter of the city. Streets radiate from it 
in fan fashion in all directions. There are 
a number of beautiful buildings, including 
a parliament house, a palace, and a town 
hall. There are several valuable museums, 
including an unrivaled collection of birds 
and a gallery of paintings. 

The warm springs of Baden-Baden have 
been noted since the time of the Romans. 
There are thirteen springs having a tem¬ 
perature of from 130° to 150° F. Baden 
is, of course, the German word for baths. 
The compound Baden-Baden is used like 
our New York, N. Y., to distinguish it 
from the Baden near Vienna and that in 
Switzerland. It is a town of 15,000 people. 
There are several hotels, pleasure gardens, 
and other fashionable attractions. It is a 
noted watering place. The season lasts 
from May until October, but is at its 
height in August, when there are about 
40,000 visitors. The gaming tables once 
maintained here have been driven away to 
Monte Carlo. 

The surface of Baden is for the most 
part hilly. There are mines of coal, salt, 
iron, zinc, and nickel, and many mineral 
springs. About half the country is under 
cultivation ) the rest is devoted to forests, 
meadows, and pastures. The people live in 
villages. The farms are small. They are 
devoted to the production of wheat, oats, 
barley, rye, hemp, tobacco, and sugar beets. 
The valleys of the Rhine and Neckar are 
noted for the production of wine. 

A largfe part of the famous Black For¬ 
est lies in Baden. Wooden toys, musical 
boxes, carved deer, inlaid tables, and the- 
famous cuckoo clocks are made here. Ca¬ 
nary birds are reared by the people of the 
Black Forest for export to all parts of 
the world. It is a region of shady, macad¬ 
amized roads, picturesque villages, cool 
drinking fountains, and quaint, hospitable 
inns,—an ideal country through which to 
travel .on a bicycle. Its railroads are 
owned and operated chiefly by the state. 
See Germany. 

Baden-Powell, Robert Stevenson 
Smith (1857- ), a British general, and 

founder of the Boy Scouts. Entering the 


BADGER—BAD LANDS 


army in 1876, he served with distinction 
in India, Afghanistan and South Africa. 
During the South African War, he won 
signal distinction through his defense of 
Mafeking, Cape Province, through a siege 
of seven months by a superior Boer force. 
In 1900, he was made chief of the South 
African Constabulary. Through all of his 
military career he manifested keen inter¬ 
est in the welfare of boys, and to him goes 
the honor of having founded the Boy 
Scout Organization in 1908. His works 
include Reconnaissance and Scouting , 
Scouting for Boys, My World Tour . 

Badger, a flat-footed, flesh-eating, bur¬ 
rowing animal allied to the skunk and 
weasel. The family is widely distributed. 
Species are found in Europe, India, Japan, 
South Africa, and America. The flesh is 
used for food. The pelt is used by fur¬ 
riers. The hair is in demand for shaving 
brushes and artists’ pencils. The Euro¬ 
pean species burrows in banks and copses. 
Badger hunting is a standard sport in the 
border countries of Great Britain. 

The .American badger is an animal of 
the prairie and plain. It ranged formerly 
throughout the Mississippi Valley and 
westward to Central Mexico and the Pa¬ 
cific Coast. It is now rarely found east of 
the Mississippi. It has a sharp nose, a 
broad, flat body, short legs, and large 
claws. It lives in burrows of its own con¬ 
struction, emerging at night to hunt goph¬ 
ers, mice, eggs of ground birds, and even 
reptiles and insects. If caught by chance 
in the open during the day time, it tucks 
its head and feet under its body and lies so 
flat as to be mistaken easily for a hillock of 
earth. It is dormant in winter. 

Badger State. See Wisconsin. 

Bad Lands, certain regions in the West 
remarkable for the way in which the coun¬ 
try has been cut into gullies, leaving tables, 
pinnacles, and cliffs, often of fantastic 
shape and considerable height. Pillars of 
hard clap capped by sandstone are of typ¬ 
ical occurrence. The cutting has been done 
by water, but, through lack of rain, the j 
face of the country is now undergoing 
change very slowly. The principal areas 
that go by that name lie in Wyoming and 
western Dakota. The Bad Lands of the 


Cheyenne and White rivers are perhaps 
the most remarkable. The traveler going 
westward on the Northern Pacific enters 
the Bad Lands shortly before reaching 
Medora. Theodore Roosevelt lived here 
for some time. He gives a vivid account of 
the Bad Lands in his Ranching in the Far 
We make room for a few extracts from a 
very interesting account of the Bad Lands 
of South Dakota written by Mr. N. H. 
Barton for Scribner’s Magazine: 

West . The region is of special interest to 
the geologist. 

Among the most notable but least known won¬ 
ders of our far west are the Big Bad Lands of 
South Dakota. They are a portion of the great 
central plains lying east of the Black Hills, and 
are remote from settlements and lines of com¬ 
munication. They are rarely reached by sight¬ 
seers and the great tides of transcontinental 
travel sweep far to the north and south. The 
region has long been famous as a collecting 
ground for students in quest of fossil bones, and 
thousands of fine specimens have been obtained 
for museums in all parts of the world. The bad 
lands do not present mountains or chasms, wood¬ 
lands or meadows, but a wilderness of rugged 
forms of moderate height carved in soft light- 
colored rock. There is endless variety in the 
configuration and the spectacle is a wonderful 
one, as it lies glittering in the bright western 
sunlight. Most of the surface is bare of vegeta¬ 
tion, and as the area is several thousand square 
miles, the panorama stretches as far as the eye 
can reach. 

There are walls and pinnacles, ridges and 
towers, carved by the rain and wind-blown sand 
into forms of great beauty and endless variety. 
Viewed from high points much of the region pre¬ 
sents the aspect of a great ruined city of 
antiquity, built of materials of pale tints of pink, 
cream, buff, and green. Great castles with but¬ 
tressed walls, pinnacles and towers abound, but 
crumbling and broken and in confusion of ar¬ 
rangement. High bare walls extend for miles, 
notched with amphithedral alcoves and sustained 
by elaborate buttresses. The highest features 
rise from 250 to 500 feet above the valleys. 
Many deep canyons extend into the bad lands 
which are walled by precipitous cliffs present¬ 
ing innumerable grotesque forms that change 
with the point of view. 

Originally the entire region of the present 
Big Bad Lands was a relatively smooth plain 
built of thick sheets of sand and sandy clay 
deposited by ancient rivers of Tertiary times 
flowing from the west. The bedding of the 
soft fine-grained sandstone usually is plainly vis¬ 
ible in horizontal banding of many delicate 
shades. Occasional beds of coarse materials 
mark the course of a strong current of some 
old river. In recent geologic time, as thq 
geologist views chronology, this region was up¬ 
lifted as a high plateau, and White River ancf 


BAEDEKER—BAGDAD 


the south fork of Cheyenne River and their 
branches began cutting deeply into the surface 
of the plains. Although the streams appear to 
be insufficient to erode extensively, the rain 
which falls in spring and early summer comes 
not in gentle showers but as a typical western 
cloudburst, and the torrents that then flood the 
gullies and the valleys continue the erosion that 
developed this great area of bad lands. The 
steep declivity and the softness of the massive 
sandstone are exceedingly favorable conditions 
for rapid erosion. 

Baedeker, bad'ek-er, Carl ( 18 0 1- 
1859), a Leipsic publisher. He is the orig¬ 
inator of a celebrated series of guide books 
still published in his name. The various 
volumes describe London, Norway and 
Sweden, Paris, Switzerland, Central Italy, 
the Rhine, Lower Egypt, etc. They are 
printed on thin paper with flexible red 
binding recognizable at a glance. The 
traveler armed with a “Baedeker” has a 
mine of information relative to expense, 
routes of traveling, location of restaurants, 
hotels, walks, bridle paths, bicycle roads, 
plans of cities, cab fares, omnibus lines, 
museums, galleries, excursions, boat routes, 
scenery, antiquities, industries, and a 
thousand and one points of information 
that save asking questions. While indis¬ 
pensable to the traveler, they are most 
valuable volumes also for a school library. 

Baffin Bay, a shallow Arctic gulf or 
passage, lying between Greenland and the 
ice covered islands of northeastern Ameri¬ 
ca. Its greatest width is about 500 miles. 
It was discovered by navigators in 1616, 
who hoped to find a passage through it to 
the Pacific. This sea was the favorite 
resort of whalers and seal catchers for 
more than two centuries. These animals 
are of late becoming too scarce for profit- 
-able pursuit. The sea is closed to navi¬ 
gation by ice during the greater part of 
the year. This, however, affords little 
cause for regret as there can be no occasion 
for its ever becoming a pathway of com¬ 
merce. 

Baffin, William, an English navigator 
and writer. The date of his birth is not 
known. He was killed in 1622 in a fight 
with the Portuguese on an island in the 
Persian Gulf. He was pilot of the “good 
ship Discovery,” which, in 1615, tried to 
find the Northwest Passage. On his re¬ 


turn, Baffin wrote an account of the voy¬ 
age. The original manuscript is preserved 
in the British Museum. The “Discovery” 
was the earliest English ship to visit the 
broad expanse between Greenland and 
British America. The name of the naviga¬ 
tor has been preserved in Baffin Bay and 
Baffin Land. 

Bagatelle, literally a small bag or bun¬ 
dle, hence a trifle or thing of no impor¬ 
tance. In literature the term is used to 
denote a plaything or a matter of little con¬ 
sequence. The game called bagatelle is 
played on a table with nine holes arranged 
at one end in the form of a diamond. 
Billiard balls are played up the table with 
a cue into these holes. The player who is 
most skillful in lodging his balls in the 
holes of greatest value wins. 

Bagdad, in Arabia, formerly the capital 
of the Turkish province of Bagdad. 
The city was founded in 762 by the Arabs. 
It is in the latitude of Los Angeles. Old 
Bagdad lay on the west bank of the Tigris. 
Under the rule of Haroun-al-Raschid it 
became the center of caravan traffic in the 
oriental world, and, a little later, 2,000,000 
people—officeholders, merchants, artificers, 
servants, and rabble—are said to have 
crowded within its walls. The modern 
city lies on the east bank. The two parts 
are connected by a pontoon bridge resting 
on thirty boats and guarded by a citadel. 
The crooked streets are so narrow that two 
horsemen can hardly ride abreast. They are 
filled with all sorts of garbage, dead ani¬ 
mals, and fighting dogs. The houses are 
one-story brick buildings with flat roofs. 

Windows and doors open on inner 
courts, so that, save for gates, wayfarers 
pick their way between continuous brick 
walls as repulsive as the streets themselves. 

1 he interiors of the better houses have 
vaulted ceilings and are decorated with 
gilded moldings, inlaid mirrors, etc., sug¬ 
gestive of former wealth. The present 
population is estimated at 145,000. Three- 
fourths of the people are Turks. The rest 
are chiefly Arabs, Persians, Hindus, and 
Jews. 

In summer the heat is oppressive, rang¬ 
ing from 75° F. at sunrise to 120° F. at 
noon. During the rainless summer the 


BAGEHOT—BAGPIPE 


entire population sleeps on the house-tops. 
The bazaars are composed of numerous 
shopkeepers’ stalls facing a common ave¬ 
nue and under a common roof of vaulted 
tiles or even of straw. There are fifty 
baths. From the outside the city is well 
nigh hid by a green canopy of palm trees, 
through which the brightly colored domes 
and minarets of a hundred mosques gleam 
with picturesque effect. Commerce with 
London is maintained by way of the Tigris 
and the Suez canal. Wheat, wool, gum, 
galls, dates, and oriental rugs are exported. 
A considerable caravan trade is still car¬ 
ried on with Persia and with Mediterrane¬ 
an ports. A railway to Constantinople is 
partly built and in operation. For glimpses 
of old Bagdad, read Arabian Nights. 

See Harun-al-Rashid ; Arabian 
Nights. 

The city was built with great bricks, and sur¬ 
rounded by a wall a hundred and twenty feet 
high; at a good distance without this wall rose 
a second, guarded by mighty bastions, and sur¬ 
rounded by a moat which could be filled with 
water at pleasure. The city was entered by four 
massive iron gates through which could ride 
horsemen with upright lances, and each of which 
required four men to stir it. On each was a gilded 
dome, where commissioned troops were on con¬ 
stant watch. Within the double walls was an 
open space, surrounded by arcades, which served 
as barracks for the troops of the palace garden. 
Beyond the arcades and another open space and 
another gateway, stood the palace of the caliph 
and the chief mosque. 

A hundred feet was fixed for the breadth 
of the chief, and thirty feet for that of the 
side streets. In th* suburbs were great tracts of 
cultivated land, and beautiful gardens, watered 
by countless canals from the Tigris and Eu¬ 
phrates. The most beautiful of these planta¬ 
tions were full of vines and citron trees. 

On the western bank of the Tigris rose a 
royal castle, towering over all that part of the 
city with its walls, its balconies, and domes. Out 
of the sea of houses rose countless minarets into 
the air, among them the famous “green” minaret, 
covered with shining green tiles. Here, too, was 
the great “green dome,” a hundred and sixty feet 
in height. 

On the western bank of the Tigris were pal¬ 
aces, baths, mosques, bazaars, and among these 
splendid buildings lay a confused labyrinth of 
the poor houses of the lower classes. The ba¬ 
zaars were rich with the wares of Asia, and one 
wa; especially famous for its costly profusion of 
Chinese silks. 

The palace of the caliph was set in the midst 
of large and well-kept gardens, and surrounded 


by countless courts, open halls, balconies, kiosks, 
all most richly adorned by splendid carpets and 
divans, with gold-embroidered curtains and ricn 
vases of gold and silver, or Chinese porcelain. 
In the gardens bloomed the finest plants of Asia; 
within the inner chambers were richly clad and 
handsome slaves, who lived as befitted the ser¬ 
vants of a prince. 

Our picture would be incomplete without a 
visit to the quays, which stretched for miles on 
either shore of the river. Whole fleets were here 
at anchor, sea and river boats of all sizes, 
from the Chinese junk to the awkward old As¬ 
syrian rafts. There, too, were anchored count¬ 
less ships of war, and between these lay the 
pleasure-boats of the caliphs and the nobles, 
glittering in gold and brilliant colors.—Kremer, 
Description of Bagdad in Time of Haroun-al - 
Rase hid. 

Bagehot, bag'ut or baj'ut, Walter 
(1826-1877), an English journalist. He 
was born and died in Langport, Somerset¬ 
shire. His education was received at the 
University of London. Although he 
studied law he did not practice, but joined 
his father in banking, and soon became 
known as a writer on economic subjects. 
He was for nine years associate editor ^)f 
the National Review , and from 1860 until 
his death was editor and joint proprietor 
of The Economist. He wrote on biograph¬ 
ical, literary and theological, as well as on 
economic subjects, and published several 
books, among them, Physics and Politics, 
The English Constitution, and three vol¬ 
umes entitled Literary Studies, Economic 
Studies, and Biographical Studies. 

Bagpipe, a wind instrument much be¬ 
loved in the Highlands of Scotland. It 
consists of a leathern wind bag, three reed 
drones, a reed chanter, and a valved mouth 
tube. The drones are tubes of unequal 
length. Two of them are short and are 
intended to be an octave higher than the 
other. The chanter is constructed like a 
German flute with openings to be played 
by the fingers. The performer carries the 
bag under his arm, forces out air through 
the chanter with his elbow and at the same 
time keeps up a supply of air by forcing 
his breath in through the mouth tube. In 
range the instrument comprises but nine 
notes, or the natural scale, and an addi¬ 
tional note an octave lower. The player, 
however, introduces an infinite variety of 
rapid quavers, resulting in a skirling and 


BAGSTOCK—BAHIA 


droning that must be heard to be appreci¬ 
ated. 

It was believed currently at one time 
that the bagpipe was invented in Scotland. 
This was an error. We learn from in¬ 
scriptions that a similar instrument was 
in common use among the Egyptians, the 
Greeks, and the Romans. Chaucer speaks 
of his Miller as skilled in playing the bag¬ 
pipe. Shakespeare alludes to the “drone 
of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.” In fact, the 
bagpipe was once common throughout 
Europe. It has lingered in the Highlands 
of Scotland after it has disappeared every¬ 
where else, unless we except the Tyrol and 
certain districts of Ireland. 

The bagpipe is the national instrument 
of Scotland. It is played at marriages, 
feasts, and funerals. The piper celebrates 
the birth of an heir; and he marches 
proudly in front of his clan on all state 
occasions. The Highland regiments in His 
Majesty’s service are always accompanied 
by native pipers. Many a gallant charge 
has been made, and many a fortress taken, 
to the thrilling notes of the bagpipe. 

Whittier compares skillfully the notes of 
the bagpipe in their Highland home with 
those heard at the head of a Highland 
regiment in India: 

Pipes of the misty moorlands, 

Voice of the glens and hills; 

The droning of the torrents, 

The treble of the rills! . . . 

Dear to the Lowland reaper, 

And plaided mountaineer,— 

To the cottage and the castle 

The Scottish pipes are dear;— 

Sweet sounds the ancient pibroch 
O’er mountain, loch, and glade; 

But the sweetest of all music 
The pipes at Lucknow played. 

Bagstock, Joey, a friend of Mr. Dom- 
bey’s in Dickens’ novel, Dombey and Son. 
He is described as “a single gentleman, 
to-wit, a wooden featured, blue faced Ma¬ 
jor, with his eyes starting out of his head.” 
He is proud of his friendship with Mr. 
Dombey, who uses Bagstock to further 
his own ends. He is constantly referring 
to himself as “Joe B.,” “J. B.,” “old Joey,” 
“old Josh Bagstock,” and so forth. He is 
apoplectic and gluttonous, and entirely 
selfish. “Old Joe is hardhearted, sir,” he 


says of himself, “he’s tough, sir, tough 
and de-vilish sly!” 

Bahamas, a group of numerous islands, 
keys, and reefs. They encircle the eastern 
end of the Gulf of Mexico in an irregular 
crescent 700 miles long, extending from off 
the coast of Florida to San Domingo. One 
of these islands, San Salvador, or Watling 
as it is now called, is thought to be the 
first land seen by Columbus on his first 
voyage of discovery, 1492. The early his¬ 
tory of the group is not creditable to the 
discoverers. The natives were a simple 
people and were carried away by the Span¬ 
iards, in 1509, to the number, it is said, 
of 40,000, to work in the mines and pearl 
fisheries of Central America. Early Eng¬ 
lish settlements were harried by the French 
and Spanish. The vacant islands became 
the resort of pirates. The present pros¬ 
perity of the Bahamas dates from 1718, 
the date of permanent British occupation-. 
The islands are low, well wooded, and fer¬ 
tile. Coral and shell limestone, mahog¬ 
any, lignum vitae, ironwood, and other 
trees furnish an abundance of building 
material. The natives spun and wove cot¬ 
ton in the day of Columbus. Tobacco, 
sisal, sugar-cane, ginger, coffee, indigo, 
peas, potatoes, melons, gourds, and cucum¬ 
bers flourish. Small fruits, oranges, lem¬ 
ons, pineapples, and cocoanuts are raised 
to advantage. Sponge fisheries are carried 
on along the coasts. Ambergris and pearls 
are collected. Salt is exported in consider¬ 
able quantities. The total population of 
twenty inhabited islands is about 53,031 
Nassau, the capital, is noted as a winter 
resort. The temperature for the entire 
year ranges only from 60° F. to 85° F. 
Nassau is connected by cable with the Flor¬ 
ida mainland, and by steamer with Lon¬ 
don, Florida, and New York. American 
merchants do a business of about $750,000 
a year with the Bahamas. 

Bahia, a port of Brazil. It is situated 
on the fine harbor of All Saints’ Bay, 
about 740 miles north from Rio Janeiro. 
Bahia was the capital of Brazil up to 
1763. It is still the seat of an arch¬ 
bishopric. It is the capital of the state 
of Bahia, 164,000 square miles in extent. 
Bahia exports forest products, sugar, dia- 


BAIKAL—BAILEY 


monds, and tobacco. Steamer landings 
average about two a day. The Brazilian 
Lloyds maintain a monthly steamship ser¬ 
vice with New York. The population 
of Bahia is about 348,130. 

Baikal, bi'kal, a lake in the south cen¬ 
tral part of Siberia. It lies in a mountain¬ 
ous region, 1,312 feet above the sea. It 
is about one-half as large as Lake Supe¬ 
rior. It is the largest body of fresh water 
in Asia. R. S. Tarr gives the following 
figures: Area, 12,500 square miles; eleva¬ 
tion, 1,312 feet; greatest depth, 4,550 feet. 
The lake is well stocked with sturgeon, 
salmon, and other fish. The natives also 
take large numbers of seals. Steep preci¬ 
pices or pine-clad slopes rise from its 
shores. The lake receives several small 
tivers, and discharges its waters through 
an outlet into the Yenisei, ultimately into 
the Arctic Ocean. It lies in the route of 
the great Siberian railway. At first, trains 
were carried across a distance of fifty 
miles or more by means of a steam ferry. 
In the winter a temporary track was laid on 
the ice. Travelers tell of riding thirty 
miles in open sleighs with the thermometer 
thirty below zero. One tourist describes 
the crossing as effected by means of sev¬ 
enty-five three-horse sleighs for first and 
second class passengers, and two hundred 
one-horse sleighs for third class passengers. 
A passage was maintained for the ferry as 
late as possible by means of a huge ice 
breaker. During the war with Japan, the 
Russian government succeeded in building 
a track around the south shore of the lake, 
thus avoiding serious delay in transporta¬ 
tion. 

Bail, in legal proceedings, security given 
to obtain the temporary release of a pris¬ 
oner, pending the determination of his 
guilt or innocence. The usual method of 
procedure is for persons of known integ¬ 
rity and means to sign a bond promising 
to pay the state a certain sum of money in 
case the prisoner should fail to appear 
when summoned to meet the charge 
against him. The amount of bail is fixed 
by the court. The prisoner is said to “give 
bail.” Those who sign the bond “go his 
bail.” The design is to prevent innocent 
persons from being imprisoned on false 


or malicious charges. Were it not for 
bail, it would be possible for an enemy 
to secure a temporary and oftentimes very 
embarrassing imprisonment by preferring 
a trumped up and false charge. The law 
of bail is framed on the assumption that it 
is better to allow many guilty to go free 
for a time than to imprison one innocent 
person. The Constitution of the United 
States provides that excessive bail shall 
not be required. In the case of a charge 
of flagrant crime, such as murder or trea¬ 
son, the court may, at its discretion, refuse 
to admit a criminal to bail. Going one’s 
bail is an evidence of confidence, not to 
say of friendship and sympathy. Horace 
Greeley was assailed very bitterly and un¬ 
justly for going on the bond of Jefferson 
Davis. 

Bailey, James Montgomery. See 

Danbury News Man. 

Bailey, Joseph Weldon (1863-), 
an American statesman and United States 
Senator from Texas. He was born in 
Mississippi, but in 1885 moved to Gaines¬ 
ville, Texas, where he began the practice 
of law. He became a well-known poli¬ 
tician in the Democratic party, and was 
sent to Congress in 1891 where he became 
leader of the minority in the House. He 
became Senator in 1901, and was re-elected 
in 1907. 

Bailey, Liberty Hyde (1858- ), botanist 
and agriculturist, well known throughout 
the country as a practical scientist. He 
was born in Michigan, educated in its 
schools, and graduated from the agricul¬ 
tural college in 1882. For one year he 
was associated with Asa Gray at Harvard, 
but returned to his alma mater as horti¬ 
culturist where he remained for five years. 
He held the same position at Cornell for 
the next fifteen years, becoming the di¬ 
rector of the college in 1903. 

His greatest work is a Cyclopedia of 
Agriculture (4 vols.). Some of his other 
works are: Evolution of Our Native 
Fruits; Beginners 3 Botany; Principles of 
Botany; Principles of Vegetable Garden¬ 
ing; Principles of Agriculture; Practical 
Garden Book; The Training of Farmers; 
The Apple Tree; Lessons with Plants; The 
Nature Study Idea; Outlook to Nature . 


BAILLIE—BAKER 


Baillie, Joanna (1762-1851), a Scottish 
poet born on the banks of the Clyde. The 
greater part of her life was spent in a 
cottage at Hampstead, on the outskirts of 
London. She was a warm friend of Sir 
Walter Scott. We omit the particulars of 
not a mean literary career in order to give 
her Scotch Fisherman’s Song entire: 

O swiftly glides the bonny boat 
Just parted from the shore. 

And to the fishers’ chorus-note 
Soft moves the dripping oar. 

Their toils are borne with lightsome cheer; 

And ever may they speed, 

Who feeble age and helpmates dear 
And tender bairnies feed. 

We cast our lines in Largo Bay; 

Our nets are floating wide; 

Our bonny boat, with yielding sway. 

Rocks lightly on the tide. 

And happy prove our daily lots 
Upon the summer sea, 

And blest on land our kindly cots. 

Where all our treasures be! 

Bainbridge, William (1774-1833), an 
American naval officer, a native of Prince¬ 
ton, New Jersey. He was connected with 
the payment of tribute to the dey of Al¬ 
giers, and commanded the frigate Phila¬ 
delphia that went aground in the war 
with Tripoli. He was held a prisoner un¬ 
til the conclusion of peace in 1805. Dur¬ 
ing the War of 1812 he had the good for¬ 
tune to command the Constitution in its 
famous fight with the Java, in which it 
earned the name of Old Ironsides. See 
Old Ironsides; Holmes. 

Baird, Spencer Fullerton (1823- 
1887), a noted American naturalist. He 
was born at Reading, Connecticut. He 
held various positions in connection with 
the Smithsonian Institution, becoming its 
secretary in 1878. His writings on North 
American reptiles, birds, mammals, and 
fishes are standard works of reference in 
the department of natural history. Few 
men have been privileged to handle so 
much material new to science. Few men 
have had as adequate facilities, and few 
have done their work with equal enthusi¬ 
asm and fidelity. Much credit for the suc¬ 
cess of the Smithsonian and its standing 
in the scientific world is due to Professor 
Baird. See Smithsonian. 

Baize, a coarse woolen fabric, with a 
close nap on one side. Baize is dyed usu¬ 


ally red or green. It is used for linings, 
desk covers, curtains, and to fill screens 
and screen doors. 

Bakelite, a substance which was in¬ 
vented by the American chemist, Dr. L. H. 
Baekeland, after whom it is named. It is 
an artificial coal tar product, and is an 
amber-like substance of much strength, 
insoluble, and which has a great resistance 
to heat and is characterized by its elec¬ 
trical insulating properties. It is used 
now as a substitute for celluloid and rub¬ 
ber, also as an enamel or finish, and as 
protective coating for wood and metal. 

The transparent bakelite is used in the 
manufacture of articles for which amber 
was formerly used, such as pipe stems, 
jewelry and fancy articles. See Bread. 

Baker, Newton Diehl (1871- ), an 

American cabinet officer, was born in 
Martinsburg, W. Va. He studied at Johns 
Hopkins and at Washington and Lee uni¬ 
versities. He was Mayor of Cleveland 
(1912-16), and in 1916 became Secretary 
of War, and held this position until the 
end of the Wilson administration (1921). 

Baker, Ray Stannard (1870- ), an 

American author, editor and journalist, 
was bom at Lansing, Mich. He was 
graduated from the Michigan Agricul¬ 
tural College in 1889, and later studied 
law and literature at the University of 
Michigan. From 1892 to 1897 he was a 
reporter and sub-editor for the Chicago 
Record. During 1897 and 1898 he was 
managing editor of McClure’s Syndicate; 
from 1899 to 1905 was associate editor 
of McClure’s Magazine; and from 1906 
to 1915 w r as one of the owners and editors 
of the American Magazine. In 191°, Mr. 
Baker was the director of the Press Bu¬ 
reau of the American Commonwealth to 
Promote Peace, with headquarters at 
Paris. Mr. Baker has written extensively 
on social and economic questions. He is 
the author of Boys’ Book of Inventions, 
Our New Prosperity, Seen in Germany, 
The Spiritual Unrest. Under the pseudo¬ 
nym of David Grayson he wrote Adven¬ 
tures in Friendship, Contentment, The 
Friendly Road, and other books. 

Baker, Sir Samuel (1821-1893), an 
English traveler. He was a native of 


BAKER’S DOZEN—BALAKLAVA 


London. He was educated as an engi¬ 
neer. In 1845 he was sent out to Ceylon 
to supervise the founding of an agricul¬ 
tural settlement and a sanitarium. Later 
he entered the Turkish railway service. 
In 1861, with Mrs. Baker, he left Cairo 
on a journey of exploration up the Nile. 
The first year he spent exploring the Blue 
Nile region. He then started across the 
country from Khartum and discovered 
Lake Albert Nyanza, March 14, 1864. 
From 1869 to 1873 he commanded an 
Egyptian expedition in central Africa, 
charged with the suppression of the slave 
trade and the annexation of territory to 
Egypt. He traveled extensively in Cyprus, 
Syria, and India. He wrote a number of 
works of more than ordinary interest, 
among others, The Rifle and the Hound 
in Ceylon, The Albert Nyanza , The Nile 
Tributaries of Abyssinia, Cyprus as I Saw 
It in i8yg, and a book for boys, Wild 
Beasts and Their Ways. See Nyanza. 

Baker’s Dozen, thirteen. An English 
expression said to have originated from the 
baker’s precaution of throwing in an ex¬ 
tra bun, lest he be caught at short weight 
and fined heavily. 

Bakersfield, Calif., the county seat of 
Kern Co., is situated 168 miles north¬ 
west of Los Angeles. It is an important 
center of the California oil industry. 
In and near to the city are oil wells 
and refineries. It has also a number of 
factories. Mineral deposits near the city 
comprise copper, gypsum, tungsten, gold 
and others. It has a public library, and 
a modern school system. The population 
in 1920 was 18,638. 

Baking Powder, a white powder, used 
as a substitute for yeast. Its original 
composition was cream of tartar, bicar¬ 
bonate of soda, and potato or rice flour. 
These ingredients are mixed separately and 
dried, and are then mixed in the desired 
proportions. The starch or flour keeps 
the soda and cream of tartar dry, and 
prevents their acting upon each other 
until ready for use. When the baking 
powder is wet the cream of tartar acts 
upon the soda and sets the carbonic acid 
gas free. The gas passes through the 
dough and makes it light and porous. 


Sour milk and soda answer the same 
purpose. 

Since cream of tartar is quite expensive, 
this has led to the substitution of acid 
phosphate in some baking powders, and in 
some alum is used in small quantities. 
These substitutes, in the proportion in 
which they are used, are not supposed to 
be injurious. 

Baku, ba-koo',a spacious Russian port 
and town on the west coast of the Caspian. 
It is in the latitude of New York City. 
There are numerous naphtha wells and 
burning springs in the vicinity. The re¬ 
gion was at one time a favorite resort of 
the fire worshipers, the remains of whose 
temples may still be seen. Of late years 
Baku has become noted for the production 
of petroleum. About one-third of the 
world’s product is obtained in this region. 
It is in the hands of foreign capitalists 
who pay the Russian government a roy¬ 
alty. Large pipes have been constructed 
to carry the crude petroleum to immense 
reservoirs and refineries. The entire busi¬ 
ness is carried on on a very large scale. 
There were in 1900, 1,306 wells. The 
yield for the year was 72,018,743 barrels 
of oil; 1918, 40,500,000 barrels. A pipe 
line leads over the mountains, through 
which oil is pumped to the wharves of 
Batoum, on the Black Sea. Baku was cap¬ 
tured by the Turks in the Great War but 
later relinquished to the Allies. 

Soviet forces then seized Baku and are 
still holding it. Oil production has fallen 
off greatly under the Soviets. Of 
Russia’s total production in 1920, 25,429,- 
600 barrels, Baku produced by far the 
greater part. See Petroleum. 

There are railways which cross the coun¬ 
try westward and northward from Baku, 
and others under construction to the south¬ 
west. Baku, the most important town in 
this district, has a population of 250,000. 

Balaklava, bal-a-kla'va, a small fishing 
port in the Crimea, eight miles southeast 
of Sebastopol. A small British army had 
effected a landing here and was attacked 
by a superior Russian force, October 25, 
1854. The Russians were beaten off and 
held at bay. The “charge of the light 
brigade” celebrated by Tennyson was a 


BALANCE OF POWER—BALANCE OF TRADE 


■ 

most unfortunate but brilliant incident of 
the day. “Somebody blundered,” but in 
obedience to the command, six hundred 
men cut their way to the Russian guns, 
seeing plainly that they were literally rid¬ 
ing “into the jaws of death.” One hun¬ 
dred and fifty survived the memorable 
charge. 

Balance of Power, in European poli¬ 
tics, the doctrine that it is the care of 
all nations to see to it that no one nation 
becomes too powerful for the rest to 
handle. The notion is in direct opposi¬ 
tion to the theory of a great world power, 
such as was aimed at by Alexander, and 
particularly by the “Holy Roman Em¬ 
pire,” and in recent years by the German 
Empire. To disturb this balance is to create 
distrust, jealousy, and promote war. It is 
the fundamental care of the League of Na¬ 
tions. The policy of preserving the bal¬ 
ance of power began to make itself felt 
ere the religious wars were brought to a 
close by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. 
During the latter part of the Thirty Years* 
War, the doctrine was leveled openly at 
the Austrian power. Richelieu, fearing 
the growing power of the Hapsburgs, sent 
the armies and the men of Catholic 
France to aid the Protestants of North 
Germany. Fear that Napoleon was grow¬ 
ing too great for the rest of the world was 
one of the causes of his downfall. Fear 
that Russia might disturb the balance of 
power kept the Russians out of Constanti¬ 
nople, and caused the world to look on 
complacently when the Russian bear was 
drubbed so unmercifully by the Japanese. 

I he doctrine that the balance of power 
should be preserved springs from a deeper 
source than mere jealously. It is an asser¬ 
tion of the instinct of self preservation. 
The doctrine will not down until the na¬ 
tions are federated. 

The World War resulted directly, 
though not wholly, from Germany’s 
threatening the balance of power that ob¬ 
tained in August, 1914; and it was to pre¬ 
vent her attempting it at any future time 
that she was so summarily dealt with by 
the allies when the nations gathered at 
the peace table. Much of the present con¬ 
flict in the Near East has its source in the 


struggle to maintain the balance, and 
every treaty that has been effected among 
the nations since the signing of the Armis¬ 
tice bears the marks of the signatories’ 
concern for the apportionment of power. 
The balance of power blocks efforts to 
disarm, and has much to do with naval 
ratios. 

Balance of Trade, in commerce, the 
difference between the value of the exports 
of a country and the value of the imports 
for the same period of time. 

The exports of the United 
States for the year ending 
June 30, 1917, amounted 

to.$3,771,181,597 

The imports for the same 

period footed . 2,608,009,008 

The American balance of 
trade for that year was 
the difference, or.$1,163,172,589 

As we sold more than we bought, the 
balance of trade was in our favor, and we 
were a creditor nation. 

As a matter of fact, balances of trade 
are not known with scientific accuracy. 
If imports and exports were reckoned by 
weight, the total exports of the world 
would equal the total imports, allowance 
being made for loss in transportation. 
Goods are worth more, however, after they 
have been carried. A higher valuation 
is likely to be placed on merchandise when 
it enters a country than was placed on it 
in the country where it was produced. 
Otherwise there would be no inducement 
to carry. American importers are required 
to enter their goods at the price paid 
abroad, as shown by invoices attested by 
a consul. If this plan were adopted by all 
countries, or some other universal method 
were followed, a much greater degree of 
accuracy would be possible. 

Down to the time of Adam Smith, a 
group of economists, known as the mer¬ 
cantile school, were wont to insist that a 
country is prosperous commercially only 
when the balance of trade is in its favor. 
The advocates of a protective tariff take 
much the same view. They hold that we 
should sell abroad, but that what we need 
should be produced at home. Free traders 
insist that an unfavorable balance of trade 





BALBOA—BALDUR 


may be desirable. They do not fail to cite 
the case of the long continued commercial 
prosperity of The United Kingdom with 
an unfavorable balance. In 1910 for in¬ 
stance, the, United Kingdom imported 
food and merchandise to the amount of 
$1,206,271,000 in excess of exports. The 
large balance in favor of the United 
States is absorbed in paying the interest on 
government bonds. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez (1475-1517), a 
Spanish adventurer. Little is known of his 
youth, save that he was well born and poor. 
In 1510 he was a debt-burdened planter 
in Haiti. In order to escape his creditors 
and join an expedition in which he was not 
wanted, he had himself concealed in a 
cask supposed to contain provisions, and 
was thus conveyed aboard a vessel about 
to sail for the American mainland. After 
various adventures, we find this soldier of 
fortune setting out from the Caribbean 
coast with a force of 190 men, 1,000 na¬ 
tives, and a pack of bloodhounds, in search 
of a great sea and a land of gold of which 
the Indians told him. September 25, 1513, 
he gained the summit of the mountains, 
and the Pacific Ocean was seen for the 
first time by white men. Five days later 
he reached the coast and, wading out into 
the water, he held aloft the flag of his 
country and took possession of these “seas 
and lands in the name of the king and 
queen of Castile.” Balboa found the sea 
of which he was in search, but the dis¬ 
covery of Peru, the land of gold, was 
reserved for another. Shortly after his 
return to the Spanish settlement he was 
thrown into prison by a jealous rival and 
was beheaded on a charge of treason. 
Balboa’s passage of the isthmus occupied 
twenty-nine days. The trip now requires 
but a few hours. 

When with eagle eyes 
He stared at the Pacific, and all his men 

Look’d at each other with a wild surmise, 
Silent, upon a peak in Darien. —Keats. 

Balbriggan, a name given to un¬ 
bleached knitted underwear and hosiery. 
Balbriggan is a town in Ireland, where, 
in 1845, a family named Smythe started 
the manufacture of this class of knitted 
goods. An attempt was made some years 


ago to prevent the use of the name by 
other firms. The name continues, however, 
in general use. See Knitting. 

Baldness, the absence of hair on the 
scalp. The commonest cause of baldness 
is old age. The hair begins to fall usually 
from the crown and the baldness extends 
gradually, the top of the head growing 
bald more rapidly than the back or sides. 
This sort of baldness is more common in 
men than in women, it has been thought 
because men more often wear hats contin¬ 
ually, thus giving the scalp too little 
ventilation. Baldness may be the result 
of accident. If the hair follicles on any 
part of the head are injured, the hair will 
grow no more. 

Baldness at an early age, or the rapid 
falling of the hair is caused usually by de¬ 
fective nutrition arising from poor circula¬ 
tion of the blood in the scalp. One should 
be able to move the scalp freely with the 
ends of the fingers. If this cannot be done 
massage is necessary until increased circu¬ 
lation brings about a more normal condi¬ 
tion. 

Temporary baldness frequently results 
from fevers or other diseases. If the 
health is restored the hair grows again, 
oftentimes more luxuriantly than before. 
Another curious fact is that a person with 
straight hair may, after a fever, grow a 
crop of curls, or vice-versa —one with curls 
may have straight hair. 

So-called hair tonics and too frequent 
shampooing injure the hair. Cleanliness 
and gentle massage, with plenty of ventila¬ 
tion, should keep the hair in a vigorous 
condition. It is said that the boys from 
Christ’s Hospital—the Blue Coat School, 
as it is called—whose uniform includes no 
hat, seldom grow bald in old age. It is 
certain that the wearing of close and heavy 
headgear for long periods is injurious. 

Baldur, bal'der, or Balder, in Scandi¬ 
navian mythology, the son of Odin, called 
also Alfadur (all father), and his wife 
Frigg. Baldur was the wisest, the gentlest 
the most eloquent of the gods. He was 
called “the Good,” and “the Beautiful.” 
“Wherever he went his coming was like the 
coming of sunshine, and all the beauty of 
summer was but the shining of his face.” 


BALDWIN 


He dwelt where nothing impure could en¬ 
ter, and where all mysteries were made 
clear. Baldur was beloved by both gods 
and men. Loki, alone, the god of de¬ 
struction, was jealous, and hated him. 

The story runs that Baldur was tor¬ 
mented by dreams that his life was in 
danger. His mother, Frigg, exacted an 
oath from all things in heaven and earth 
to do him no harm. Fire and water, 
beasts and birds, trees, stones, and metals, 
diseases and poisons, all willingly promised 
not to hurt Baldur, for all loved him. One 
small tree only, the mistletoe, made no 
promise for Frigg thought it so young 
and feeble that an oath from it was un¬ 
necessary. Now, of course, Baldur was in¬ 
vulnerable. So the gods delighted to place 
him in their midst and hurl stones, darts, 
and battle axes at him. Since they could 
not hurt him, this treatment was an honor 
to Baldur. But jealous Loki could not 
endure the sight. He disguised himself as 
an old woman and, learning from Frigg 
that the mistletoe alone had failed to 
swear the oath of protection, he plucked 
the little tree and from it shaped an ar¬ 
row. Among the gods enjoying the sport 
about Baldur was the blind Hodur. Loki 
slipped his arrow into Hodur’s hand and 
asked him to shoot, himself guiding the 
direction the arrow should take. The ar¬ 
row pierced the heart of Baldur and he 
fell dead. The lamentations for the beau¬ 
tiful god were loud and long. Finally, at 
Frigg’s request, a messenger was sent to 
the abode of Hela, goddess of Death, to 
beg that Baldur might return to Asgard. 
Hela replied that if all things in heaven 
and earth would weep for Baldur, he might 
return. So messengers went forth from 
Asgard to tell the news, and throughout all 
the earth and the heavens there was weep¬ 
ing for Baldur. Only one old giantess, 
Thok, was found sitting in a cavern, who 
said: 

Thok will wail 

With dry eyes 

Baldur’s bale-fire, 

Let Hela keep her own. 

Then she laughed a terrible laugh and the 
messengers knew it was Loki, disguised 
again, and that Baldur must remain in the 
abodes of Death. 


The story of Baldur is a sun myth. In 
him is personified the beauty of summer. 
While Baldur lived all was bright and 
beautiful in Asgard. With his death be¬ 
gan the “twilight of the gods,” when As¬ 
gard lay in cold shadows and there was 
wrangling, and murder, and war. So the 
long northern winter follows the beautiful 
summer. And as joy and light return after 
the long winter, so Baldur, after long ages 
of twilight, returned to the new earth. 

Baldur has been made attractive in lit¬ 
erature. Matthew Arnold’s Baldur Dead 
is a beautiful poem in blank verse. Bal¬ 
dur’s funeral is described by William Mor¬ 
ris in The Lovers of Godrun, a poem in 
The Earthly Paradise. Longfellow’s poem, 
TegnePs Drapa, has for its subject the 
death of Baldur. It was written after the 
death of Tegner, the Swedish poet. The 
word Drapa signifies death-song. The 
story of Baldur is told also in Hamilton 
Wright Mabie’s Norse Stories. 

See Asgard; Mythology; Odin; Lo¬ 
ki; Ragnarok. 

Baldwin, James Mark, (1861- ) an 

American psychologist, was born in Co¬ 
lumbia, S. C., and was educated at Prince¬ 
ton College, Leipsic, Berlin, and Tubingen 
universities. He was instructor of Ger¬ 
man and French at Princeton in 1886- 
1887 ; professor of philosophy at Lake 
Forest University, (1887-1889), and in 
the University of'Toronto (1889-1893). 
He then became professor of psychology 
at Princeton University, which position he 
held until 1903, when he became professor 
of philosophy and psychology at Johns 
Hopkins University. He was president of 
the American Psychological Association in 
1897-98. Professor Baldwin was awarded 
the gold medal of the Royal Academy of 
Arts and Sciences (Denmark), in 1897, 
for the best work on the general question 
of ethics. 

He has written, among others, the fol¬ 
lowing books: Handbook of Psychology 
(2 vols. 1889-1891) ; a translation of 
Ribot’s German Psychology of To-day; 
Elements of Psychology; Mental Develop¬ 
ment of the Child and the Race; Social 
and Ethical Interpretations in Mental De¬ 
velopment ; Fragments in Philosophy and 


BALDWIN—BALEARIC ISLANDS 


Science; Development and Evolution; 
Darwin and the Humanities; The Indi¬ 
vidual and Society ; History of Psychology 
(2 vols.) ; American Neutrality; The Su¬ 
per-State; also editor of the Psychological 
Review and Dictionary of Philosophy and 
Psychology. 

Baldwin, Matthias William (1795- 
1866), an American inventor, and the 
father of the American locomotive. Bald¬ 
win was apprenticed to a jeweler, and his 
inventiveness soon became manifest through 
his improved process for plating gold. 
Later, he improved on the calico printing 
process of his time. Baldwin had de¬ 
signed and built a steam engine for his 
workshop, and he soon began building sta¬ 
tionary engines for the trade. Several 
locomotive engines had been built and op¬ 
erated in England but American railway 
men were not satisfied with them. The 
Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown 
Railway commissioned Baldwin to build a 
practical locomotive. He designed and 
built for them Old Ironsides, a locomotive 
that was in service for 20 years. In 
1833, he made another locomotive, and 
thereby set a general standard for all later 
locomotive construction; and also laid the 
foundation of the famous Baldwin Loco¬ 
motive Works, the largest plant of its kind 
in the world. 

Baldwin, Robert (1804-1858), a Cana¬ 
dian statesman whose unflagging effort was 
largely responsible for the establishment 
in Canada of a government responsible to 
those governed. Mr. Baldwin was born 
at York (now Toronto), the son of a 
lawyer. The younger Baldwin, called to 
the bar in 1825, soon became interested in 
politics. At that time both Upper and 
Lower Canada were governed by an 
oligarchy that controlled the public offices. 
Popular discontent was crystallized in a de¬ 
mand for an executive council responsible 
to the legislature. The discontented ele¬ 
ment elected Baldwin to the Assembly of 
Upper Canada in 1829, but he lost the seat 
on a technicality in 1830. In 1836, he 
was made a member of the executive coun¬ 
cil, but, unable to make any headway 
against the reactionaries, he resigned. 
Baldwin condemned the Radical outbreak 


of the next few years, and in 1842 he be¬ 
came one of the prominent leaders of the 
first Canadian administration to accept re¬ 
sponsible government. But this principle 
of government was not yet firmly estab¬ 
lished, and Baldwin resigned in 1843 be¬ 
cause of the opposition of Baron Metcalf 
to the ministry. But in 1848 Baldwin was 
again in power, and this time a responsible 
government was firmly established. Bald¬ 
win held office for three years. His min¬ 
istry saw an unprecedented amount of re¬ 
form, including a revision of the judicial 
system of Upper Canada, the foundation 
of the University of Toronto on a non¬ 
sectarian basis, and the organization of 
municipal government in Toronto. 

Balearic Islands, a group of Spanish 
islands. The group lies in the western 
Mediterranean, midway between the coast 
of Spain and Algeria. There are several 
considerable islands and a number of islets. 
The larger island is known as Majorca, 
a name in which ma;or is recognized readi¬ 
ly. Another is known as Minorca, self 
evidently a minor island. The total area 
of the group is 1,935 square miles. The 
total population is given at 311,649, an av¬ 
erage of 161 per square mile. The islands 
are of limestone formation. The highest 
peak, on the island of Minorca, rises 5,250 
feet above the sea. There are exquisite 
marbles and veins of lead, iron, coal, cin¬ 
nabar, and copper. The scenery is beau¬ 
tiful. Sea breezes are said to make the 
climate tolerable. The inhabitants raise 
cattle, sheep, and goats. Oil, wine, figs, al¬ 
monds, melons, pomegranates, hemp, and 
flax are produced. Pitch, with which to 
calk boats, etc., was obtained from the 
islands. Roman epicures prized the edible 
snails of Majorca. The Carthaginians are 
known to have taken possession of the 
islands at a very early date. At the close 
of the Carthaginian wars, the Balearic 
Islands fell to the Romans. The cele^ 
brated Balearic slingers became a regular 
contingent of the Roman army. In 423 
the islands were occupied by the Vandals, 
and in 798 they were seized by the Moors. 
Under the Moors the islands were popu¬ 
lous and productive, but became obnoxious 
for piracy. Christianity applauded when 


BALFE—BALKAN PENINSULA 


the Moors were expelled by the king of 
Aragon in 1232. In 1713 the islands were 
assigned to the English by the Peace of 
Utrecht; but in 1803 they were re-ceded 
to Spain by the Treaty of Amiens. The 
Balearics now form a regular province of 
Spain. Palma, the capital, situated on 
Majorca, is about 150 miles distant by sea 
from the Spanish port of Barcelona. Poul¬ 
try raisers will recall the minorcas as a 
Spanish strain of the common domestic 
fowl. 

Balfe, Michael William (1808-1870), 
a British composer. He was born in 
Dublin. At the age of 7, Balfe played 
difficult violin pieces in public; and in 
1827 he was singing Italian grand opera 
in Paris. He went to Italy, later, and 
confined himself to operatic composition. 
The most popular of his thirty or more 
operas is The Bohemian Girl. Upon this 
opera and upon his Rose of Castile and 
Satanella rests his fame. 

Balfour, Arthur James (1848- ), a 

famous English statesman whose skill as 
a debater and whose wealth of common 
sense have won him an important position 
in British public affairs. He was born in 
Scotland and educated at Eton and at 
Trinity College, Cambridge. During 
1878-80, Mr. Balfour was private secre¬ 
tary to his uncle, the Marquis of Salisbury, 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 
Entering the House of Commons in 1874 
as a member for Hartford, he served until 
1885, and represented Manchester from 
1886 to 1905. Mr. Balfour was President 
of the Local Government Board in 1885, 
Secretary of State for Scotland in 1886, 
and Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1887. 
In 1891-92, he was First Lord of the 
Treasury, and on the retirement of Lord 
Salisbury in 1902 Mr. Balfour succeeded 
to the Premiership. As Premier, he suc¬ 
ceeded in getting through the Education 
Act of 1902, the Irish Land Act of 1904, 
and he created the Committee of National 
Defense. When Mr. Chamberlain, the 
Colonial Secretary, resigned in 1903 and 
raised the fiscal question, Mr. Balfour ex¬ 
pressed agreement with his proposals, but 
held that the time was not ripe for the 
taxation of food. In the winter of 1905, 


opposition to Mr. Balfour’s administration 
became so effective that he was forced to 
resign, being succeeded by Sir Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman. Since 1906, he has 
represented the City of London in Parlia¬ 
ment. Mr. Balfour became head of the 
Admiralty in 1915, and, being made Secre¬ 
tary of State for Foreign Affairs, he headed 
the British War Mission to the United 
States in 1917 and served as delegate to the 
Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. He 
is the author of Theism and Humanism, 
Criticism and Beauty, and Speeches on 
Fiscal Reform. 

Baliol, ba'le-ol or bal'yol, John, a 
Scottish nobleman. He lived 1249-1315. 

Baliol and Robert Bruce were competitors 
for the vacant throne of Scotland. The 
supporters of the former succeeded in re¬ 
ferring the matter to Edward I of Eng¬ 
land who decided in favor of Baliol, but 
took opportunity to make him and Scot¬ 
land subordinate to the English crown. 
This procedure made Baliol very unpopu¬ 
lar with his countrymen. He was subse¬ 
quently deposed by Edward. He died in 
Normandy shortly after his former rival, 
the Bruce, had won the famous victory 
of Bannockburn. The Scots called Baliol 
‘Toom Tabard,” or empty-jacket. His 
son Edward invaded Scotland with English 
backing in 1332, and succeeded in making 
himself king of the Scots for a period of 
three months. See Bruce; Scotland. 

Balkan Peninsula, the southeastern- 
most peninsula of Europe. It lies between 
the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The term 
is held usually to include the territory 
south of the Save and the Danube. In 
this sense the peninsula included Greece, 

I urkey in Europe, Montenegro, Sefvia, 
Bulgaria, a part of Austria-Hungary, and a 
part of Roumania. The name is derived 
from the Balkan Mountains. What to do 
with the Balkans was a vexing question at 
Paris. Finally, Jugo-Slavia, a new repub¬ 
lic, was evolved from Serbia, Bosnia, Her¬ 
zegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia, with 
Belgrade as capital. The population of 
the state is 7,000,000 and mostly of one 
blood. Serbia and Montenegro were inde¬ 
pendent states, but the others were parts 
of Austria. Greece, Bulgaria, and Rou- 


BALKAN WARS 


mania received territory from Turkey and 
Austria, Albania suffered some changes, 
Constantinople will be governed by the 
Allies—thus has the Balkan Country been 
remapped and Turkey in Europe has 
passed away. See Jugo-Slavia; Czecho¬ 
slovakia; Bulgaria. 

Balkan Wars, the wars fought in the 
Balkan Peninsula in 1912-13. Their 
origin was the establishment of the Turkish 
empire in Europe in the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries, though this origin is 
sometimes obscured by recent events. In 
the first war, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro 
and Greece were allied against Turkey; 
while in the second war, which resulted 
immediately from the first, Serbia, Greece, 
Rumania and Montenegro were allied 
against Bulgaria. 

When the Turks advanced into Europe 
and conquered some of the peoples of the 
Balkan Peninsula, they left to the con¬ 
quered the rights of religious freedom and 
of local political independence; with the 
result that the people, though under Turk¬ 
ish rule, retained their national identity and 
still adhered to the Christian faith. Up¬ 
risings were continual from the time of the 
Turk’s coming to Europe until the great 
uprising known as the first Balkan War. 

The power of the Turkish Empire be¬ 
gan to decline in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, at the same time that 
the nationalistic feeling took root in the 
various Balkan states. Russia iwas en¬ 
croaching upon Turkish territory and in¬ 
fluence, and was at the same time encour¬ 
aging the little states to throw off the 
Turkish yoke; but while these states won 
their independence of the Turk and recog¬ 
nition of that independence by the ambi¬ 
tious European powers, the conflict of in¬ 
terests between the latter and the Balkan 
states barred these states from their 
ultimate goal—the definition of boundaries 
in accordance with the nationality of the 
peoples. Save for Montenegro, each of the 
Balkan states was dominating territory that 
was claimed by another. The problem was 
further complicated and war was made 
inevitable by the fact that the Turk -still 
held Albania and Macedonia, which all 
the other states wanted. Other compli¬ 


cating factors were the Young Turkish 
revolution of 1908, Austria’s annexation 
of Herzegovina and Bosnia, and Bulgaria’s 
declaration of independence. 

Turkey had been materially weakened by 
the war with Italy, 1911-12, so that the 
allied Balkans declared war against their 
ancient enemy with a more than fair chance 
of success. The Turks, as a matter of fact, 
had a much larger army on paper than 
they had in the field, while the reverse 
was, at least partially, true of the allies. 
Mobilization was begun by the allies in 
September, 1912, and an elaborate and 
effective plan of campaign was drawn. 
The Bulgarians, upon whom the burden of 
the fighting fell, inflicted severe punish¬ 
ment on the Turks at the battles of Kirk- 
Kilisse and Lule Burgas, and the Greeks 
defeated a strong Turkish force and took 
Saloniki. The Turk was soon suing for 
peace; and in December, 1912, a confer¬ 
ence met in London to discuss terms. 
Turkey would not accede to the allied de¬ 
mands, and the war resumed in February, 
1913. In the second part of the war, 
the allies captured Scutari, Janina and 
Adrianople. Hostilities stopped again in 
May. 

Turkey was brought to terms at the 
second peace conference, also held in Lon¬ 
don. Almost all of her European terri¬ 
tory was taken and allocated to the allies, 
Greece was given the island of Crete and 
the province of Saloniki; Bulgaria gained 
territory down to the Aegean Sea; and to 
Serbia was given a strip of territory in 
Macedonia. These apportionments, how¬ 
ever, immediately gave rise to conflict 
among the allies. Bulgaria had made a 
secret treaty with Serbia governing the dis¬ 
tribution of the territory they hoped to 
take from Turkey, the treaty saying, in 
part, that Serbia was to be given the larger 
part of Albania and thus gain a port on 
the Adriatic Sea. But Albania was made 
an independent state and Serbia was de¬ 
prived of her share of the territory, while 
Bulgaria received even more tjian the treaty 
with Serbia had promised. Serbia pro¬ 
tested that she could not be bound by that 
treaty, and Bulgaria answered that she was 
and must remain bound. 


BALL-BALL 


In the spring of 1913, however, Serbia 
definitely announced that so far as she was 
concerned the treaty was no longer opera¬ 
tive. Greece, also, began making claims 
upon Bulgaria, and another war loomed. 
New alliances were made and old ones 
renewed among the states, and in June, 
1913, Bulgaria opened hostilities. Within 
a month the allies were close upon the 
Bulgarian capital. Bulgaria sued for an 
armistice. A treaty was signed at Bucha¬ 
rest, whereby Bulgaria lost a large part of 
the territory gained from Turkey. Turkey, 
while the all-Balkan affair was in progress, 
had retaken Adrianople, which had been 
alloted to Bulgaria by the Treaty of Lon¬ 
don. Bulgaria was forced to cede the 
fortress and a large strip of territory to 
Turkey. Bulgaria, therefore, issued from 
the two wars but little richer in territory 
than when she went in, and very much 
poorer in men and money. Greece and 
Montenegro made the largest gains. 

But what is known in diplomatic circles 
as the Eastern Question not only was not 
solved, but really became more compli¬ 
cated. In the year following the treaty 
between Bulgaria and the other Balkan 
states, Austria’s action against Serbia pre¬ 
cipitated the World War, and a new align¬ 
ment among the Balkan states followed. 
Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro joined 
the Allies; Bulgaria, with Turkey, joined 
forces with Germany, while Greece main¬ 
tained a doubtful neutrality. Since the 
close of the world conflict, however, the 
Turk and the Greek have been at war. 
The Greek forces in Asia Minor were 
thoroughly defeated, the Turks have seized 
the Dardanelles and have advanced into 
Greece as far as the Maritza River. The 
Eastern question is not yet settled. 

See Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, 
Greece, Montenegro, Rumania, Serbia, ^ 
Turkey, Dardanelles, World War. [ 

Ball. See Basket Ball; Baseball; 
Football; Cricket; Lacrosse. 

Ball, John, “the mad priest,” an Eng¬ 
lish priest who took part in the rising of 
the peasantry under Wat the Tyler. He 
was a Lollard, a follower of Wyclif’s 
teachings. He pleased the peasants by in¬ 
veighing on the equity of gentry and vil¬ 


leins, and was thrice imprisoned by an 
archbishop for preaching heresy. He was 
in jail at Maidstone when the peasants 
rose. One of their first efforts was to set 
him free. They escorted him to Black- 
heath, where he exhorted them, so it is 
said from the text, 

When Adam dalf and Eve span 

Who was thanne a gentilman! 

After the murder of Wat the Tyler, 
Ball fled, but was overtaken at Coventry 
and was executed at St. Albans July 15, 
1381, in the presence, it is said, of the 
king. See Lollards; Wat the Tyler. 

This priest used oftentimes to go and preach 
when the people in the villages were coming out 
from mass; and he would make them gather 
about him, and would say thus: “Good people, 
things go not well in England, nor will, till 
everything be in common and there no more be 
villeins and gentlemen. By what right are they 
whom we call lords greater folk than we? We 
be all come from one father and one mother, 
Adam and Eve, . . . but they are clothed in vel¬ 
vet and are warm in their furs, while we shiver 
in rags; they have wine, and spices, and fair 
bread; and we, oat cake and straw, and water 
to drink; they dwell in fair houses, and we have 
the pain and travail, the rain and the wind in 
the fields. Yet from our labor they keep their 
estate.” And so the people would murmur one 
with the other in the fields, and in the ways 
as they met together, affirming that John Ball 
spoke truth.—Froissart. 

The peasants were dispersed and defeated, 
their leaders were tried, sentenced and hanged; 
but the solid fruits of victory rested with the 
insurgents of J»ne, 1381. (3nce in the history 
of England only—once, perhaps, only in the 
history of the world—peasants and artizans at¬ 
tempted to effect a revolution by force. They 
nearly succeeded—at least they became for a 
short time the masters of the situation. The 
English laborer, for a century or more, became 
virtually free and constantly prosperous.—Thor- 
old Rogers. 

Ball, Thomas, (1819-1911), an Amer¬ 
ican sculptor, whose work has been of a 
permanent influence in the United States. 
He became interested in art while in the 
employ of the old New England Museum, 
in Boston. His first important work was 
a bust of Daniel Webster. He later went 
to Florence to study. Among his other 
works are an equestrian statue of Wash¬ 
ington, a statue of Edwin Forrest, a bronze 
of President Lincoln freeing a kneeling 
slave, called the Emancipation Group, and 
a large bronze of Daniel Webster . 


r 


BALLAD 


Ballad, a simple, direct, and often crude 
narrative poem relating the fortunes or 
misfortunes of persons in a way to arouse 
deep feeling and interest in the auditor. 
The term ballad is akin to ballet, a dance. 
The ballad took its name from the dance 
to which it formed an accompaniment 
among primitive peoples. In brief, its 
origin was this: At some stirring event, 
—the outbreak of war, a victory, a defeat, 
a brave deed, a marriage, the death of a 
hero—the people gathered to rejoice, to 
mourn, or to perform religious rites. They 
chanted the story of the occurrence in rude 
song, accompanied with dance and gesture. 
This crowd singing, it must be borne in 
mind, was entirely spontaneous,—the pure 
expression of feeling where all felt alike. 

The oldest known English ballads are 
those which sang the exploits of the fa¬ 
mous Robin Hood. They date from the 
thirteenth century. Until the introduction 
of printing, toward the end of the fifteenth 
century, ballads must needs be handed 
down from father to son, usually by word 
of mouth, though some manuscript copies 
have been preserved. In 1765 Bishop 
Percy collected and edited these early 
poems with painstaking care. His work, 
entitled, Reliques of Ancient English 
Poetry, is still the most noted collection of 
early English ballads. Most of these 
earlier ballads are artless and simple, but 
they are fresh and wild and unstudied. A 
few stanzas taken from different ballads 
will give an idea of the style and versifica¬ 
tion prevalent. The first stanza is from 
Chevy Chase : 

God prosper long our noble king, 

Our liffes and safetyes all; 

A woeful hunting once there did 
In Chevy-Chase befall. 

To drive the deere with hound and home, 
Erie Percy took his way; 

The child may rue that is unborne 
The hunting of that day. 

From Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale: 
Then Robin Hood put his horn to his mouth 
And blew blasts two and three; 

When four-and-twenty. bowmen bold 
Came leaping over the lea. 

From Sir Patrick Spens: 

O lang, lang, may the ladies sit, 

Wi’ their fans into their hand, 

Before they see Sir Patrick Spens 
Come sailing to the strand! 


And lang, lang, may the maidens sit, 

With their goud kaims in their hair 
A’ waiting for their ain dear loves, 

For them they’ll see nae mairl 
O forty miles off Aberdeen, 

’Tis fifty fathoms deep, 

And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens 
Wi’ the Scots lords at his feet. 

As culture and education advanced with 
the invention of printing, the minstrel 
gradually disappeared, the conscious poet 
taking his place, giving us such ballads as 
those by Coleridge and Macaulay, which, 
however, possess so few of the qualities of 
the old “folk song” that we must needs 
class the two as traditional and artistic bal¬ 
lads respectively. We thus see three pe¬ 
riods in the development of the ballad: 

1. The spontaneous singing of a crowd 
moved by the same emotion. 

2. The song of an individual impro¬ 
vised to please a crowd or praise a hero. 

3. The conscious song of the educated 
poet. 

Well known English ballads are: 

Bannockburn .Robert Burns 

Betsy and I are Out .Will Carleton 

Charge of the Light Bri¬ 
gade .Alfred Tennyson 

Chevy Chase .(English Ballad) 

Edinburgh after Flodden ..W. E. Aytoun 

Hermit, The .Oliver Goldsmith 

Horatius .T. B. Macaulay 

Hohenlinden .Thomas Campbell 

How He Saved Saint Mi¬ 
chael’s .Mary Stansbury 

How They Brought the 
Good News from Ghent 

to Aix .Robert Browning 

John Gilpin’s Ride .William Cowper 

Lochinvar .Walter Scott 

Lord Ullen’s Daughter ....Thomas Campbell 

Marco Bozarris .Halleck 

Marmion and Douglas .Walter Scott 

Mary Garvin .John G. Whittier 

Paul Revere’s Ride .Longfellow 

Relief of Lucknow, The .... R. T. S. Lowell 
Rime of the Ancient Mari¬ 
ner .S. T. Coleridge 

Sheridan’s Ride .T. B. Read. 

Sir Patrick Spens .(English Ballad). 

As we read Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Eng¬ 
lish Poetry, the old minstrels place us under a 
spell, and, for the time, make us forgetful of 
the fascination of the modern poets. We are 
transported back to the days of rude life in 
England. We sup, and watch, and fight, and 
love with the brave, lawless yeomen. Strive as 
they may, our poets of a nobler civilization can¬ 
not produce companion-pieces to the Ancient 
Ballad of Chevy Chase, or to Adam Bell, Clym 



















BALLAST—BALLOON 


of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley. “Young 
Lochinvar” and “Sheridan’s Ride” are spirited, 
but they do not approach the old ballads in 
graphic terseness, in poetic simplicity, in fiery 
fervor, in tenderness of pathos. The reproduc¬ 
tion of such poetry is prevented by the civiliza¬ 
tion of this age. Law, not lawlessness, is hon¬ 
ored now. Personal prowess, reckless daring, 
are dangerous to society in this day; they gave 
protection to little bands in the English wood; 
they received the grateful applause of men who 
lived amid the perils of the Scottish Border. 
It was the hardihood of this age that produced 
the old ballads.—Shaw. 

If we bear in mind the dominant importance 
of the individual, the artist, in advancing stages 
of poetry, it is easy to understand why, for 
civilized and lettered communities, the ballad has 
ceased to have any vitality whatever. . . . In¬ 
deed, paper and ink, the agents of preservation in 
the case of ordinary verse, are for ballads the 
agents of destruction.— Americana. 

The popular ballads have passed away with 
the conditions which produced them. Modern 
poets have, in several instances, written ballads 
of striking picturesqueness and power, but as 
unlike the ballad of popular origin as the world 
of today is unlike the world in which “Chevy 
Chase” was first sung. These modern ballads are 
not necessarily better or worse than their prede¬ 
cessors; but they are necessarily different. It 
is idle to exalt the wild flower at the expense 
of the garden flower; each has its fragrance, its 
beauty, its sentiment; and the world is wide!— 
Hamilton Wright Mabie. 

Ballast, any weight carried in the hold 
of a ship to keep it right side up. It is 
necessary, especially in the case of a sail¬ 
ing ship, to load the hold heavily, or the 
immense expanse of canvas spread to the 
wind may cause the ship to tip over. In 
the case of an empty ship going after car¬ 
go, or departing from port with a light 
load, sailors take on board any heavy ma¬ 
terial, as bags of sand, gravel, stones, or 
earth. The best of all ballast is, of course, 
bars of iron, or better yet, lead, that lie 
low and occupy little space. Harbor rules 
enforced by the authorities of the various 
ports prescribe the places where the ballast 
of incoming ships may be thrown over¬ 
board, so as not to obstruct the channel. 
Very frequently it is piled up on the shore, 
so as to be available for the next ship that 
needs it. Steam vessels showing little can¬ 
vas require less ballast. Most modern 
ships use water, which is pumped into or 
out of tanks arranged for the purpose. In 
the case of war ships with a heavy weight 
of guns on deck, heavy ballasting of lead 


is run into the lowest part of the hold to 
balance the metal above. The term is also 
applied to the bags of sand carried in bal¬ 
loon ascensions, and to the earth packed 
between the sleepers on a railroad track. 
An unstable person is said to lack ballast. 

Ballet, bal-la', a spectacular dance, usu¬ 
ally presented as an interlude in a theatric¬ 
al performance. The ballet is made elab¬ 
orate by the number of performers, and by 
the variety of steps, poses, and costumes. 

Balliol College. See Oxford. 

Balloon, a bag filled with helium, hy¬ 
drogen, coal gas, hot air, or other gas light¬ 
er than the atmosphere. When released, th«* 
downward pressure of the atmosphere 
forces the balloon upward until it reaches 
a position in the atmosphere where its 
weight is equal to that of the air displaced. 
Balloon ascensions are accomplished in a 
light car or cage attached to a large bal¬ 
loon. Those who make the attempt are 
called aeronauts, or air navigators. A nav¬ 
igator carries usually a supply of ballast, 
or sand in bags, which he may throw out 
if he desires his car to rise higher. The 
balloon is furnished with a valve controlled 
by a cord so that the navigator may al¬ 
low gas to escape when he wishes to come 
down. Balloon navigation is attended with 
great risks. Sometimes a balloon is caught 
in an upper current of air, and carried 
away off to the ocean, where it is never 
heard of again. Not infrequently some 
accident causes the entire contrivance to 
drop to the ground, killing the occupants 
of the cage. 

The construction of the first balloon is 
credited to Stephen and Joseph Montgol¬ 
fier, sons of a paper maker of Annonay, 
France. They experimented at first with 
paper bags filled with smoke. Then they 
constructed a linen bag about thirty feet 
in diameter, and filled it with hot air by 
means of a straw fire. This balloon rose 
June 5, 1783, to a height of about a mile 
and one-half to the great astonishment of 
the villagers. In August of the same year 
M. Charles of Paris constructed a large 
silk balloon, and, after four days of work 
with sulphuric acid and iron filings, suc¬ 
ceeded in filling it with hydrogen gas. He 
allowed it to rise from the Champ de Mars 


BALLOON 


in Paris. It rose to a height of about 
3,000 feet, and remained in full view 
of an immense crowd of people for 
about three quarters of an hour. It then 
drifted away and fell about fifteen miles 
off in the field of some peasants, who were 
terrified beyond measure and attacked it 
and tore it to pieces under the impression 
that it was a dangerous monster of some 
sort. In November of the same year two 
Frenchmen attached a car to a balloon. 
They rose about 500 feet, remained twen¬ 
ty-five minutes in the air, traveling a hori¬ 
zontal distance of five miles. 

From this time on one experiment suc¬ 
ceeded another. A high ascension was 
made September 5, 1862, by Messrs. Glai- 
sher and Coxwell. They reached a height 
of 29,000 feet, or about five and one-half 
miles. At that height they recorded a tem¬ 
perature of —2°F., and a barometric pres¬ 
sure of 11.28 inches. Professor Berson of 
Berlin ascended in 1894 to a height of 
28,750 feet. His record shows a tempera¬ 
ture of 54°F. A correct observation at 
that date was well-nigh impossible owing 
to the intense cold, and physical depression 
for want of oxygen in the rarified high 
altitude. Today, at a height of more than 
30,000 feet recently attained by an avia¬ 
tor, he was competent to handle his instru¬ 
ments with care owing to electrically- 
heated clothing and oxygen artificially ad¬ 
ministered to his lungs by tubes from an 
oxygen tank. 

Balloons sent up at the Paris Expo¬ 
sition in 1900 made remarkable jour¬ 
neys to Sweden, Germany, and Poland. 
One traveled 1,193 miles in 36 hours and 
45 minutes. The greatest height attained 
by any of these balloons was 21,582 feet, 
Two Frenchmen journeyed by balloon 
from Crystal Palace, London, to St. Den¬ 
is, a suburb of Paris, a distance of 250 
miles, in 6^2 hours. Empty balloons have 
been sent up beyond the limits of human 
life. In 1893 a balloon with a self-regis¬ 
tering barometer was sent up at Paris. If 
the instrument record is correct, the bal¬ 
loon rose nearly ten miles. A balloon 
sent up at Berlin reached an altitude of 
eleven and one-half miles. A self-regis¬ 
tering barometer recorded 75° below zero* 


r A recent device is the addition of a cam¬ 
era with which to make protographic ob¬ 
servations. At a height of 3,000 feet a fleet 
thirty miles away may be photographed. 

The most efficient of all types of dirigi¬ 
bles is the Zeppelin. This is what is called 
the rigid type. The Parseval is a semi¬ 
rigid type. The difference between the 
two is that the first has a rigid framework 
of light metal into which are placed a 
large number of gas-bags. The framework 
holding them is covered by an envelope 
which is held rigid. This is to protect the 
bags from atmospheric changes. The sec¬ 
ond type is a large gas-bag from which a 
car is suspended. In the first, one or more 
bags may be punctured without seriously 
crippling the machine. If the other has 
its bag injured badly the whole affair col¬ 
lapses. Those not willing to grant the 
superiority of the dirigible on land must 
at least grant its supremacy on the sea. It 
can speed before the gale, remain motion¬ 
less in air while its motor is repaired, it 
can carry more fuel and remain in the air 
longer than an airplane. As a fighter it 
is too unwieldy, but as a spy it is un¬ 
rivalled, soaring high above the range of 
guns and spying out every corner of the 
sea. The English since the war have pro¬ 
jected dirigibles carrying 300 tons and 
containing 10,000,000 feet of gas. 

The rigid dirigible is the long distance 
airship of the future as well as the heavy 
freighter. It can climb from 6,000 to 
23,000 feet easily; it is cheaper and safer 
to operate than the airplane, for long dis¬ 
tances. The cars can be roomy and lux¬ 
urious. American science contributed as a 
war benefit a non-inflammable gas called 
‘‘helium,” thus practically eliminating the 
danger of fire. 

Captive balloons were much used during 
the great war in Europe, 1914-1918, for 
making observations and directing artillery 
fire. Such balloons are held captive to 
the earth by means of a cable which winds 
about a drum or windlass and is let out 
or hauled in by hand or a small engine. 
They have long been used for amusement 
purposes at fairs and expositions; a captive 
balloon of 45,000 cubic feet capacity, 
carrying 40 passengers, was one of the fea- 


BALLOT 


tures of the International Exposition at 
Paris in 1878. 

Balloon races for a cup donated by 
James Gordon Bennett have been held in 
Europe each year since 1906, with the 
exception of the war years. American 
balloonists won four out of the eleven 
races held up to 1922 ; Germans two, 
Swiss two, Belgians two, and the French 
one. The greatest distance traveled by a 
balloon in these races was 1,354 miles, 
covered by Maurice Benaims, of France, in 
1912. Alan R. Hawley and Augustus 
Post, Americans, won the race in 1910 with 
a distance of 1,171 miles, and in 1920 a 
Belgian won with 1,100 miles. The 
world’s dirigible balloon record for alti¬ 
tude is 9,514 feet, with six passengers. 
The record for height in an ordinary gas 
balloon is 28,750 feet. See Airship. 

Ballot, a written or printed vote. Vot¬ 
ing by ballot differs from a rising vote, 
a show of hands, answering a roll call, 
and all other such forms of voting, in that 
it is a method intended to secure secrecy. 
The ballot is not a modern invention. 
Athenian juries voted by ballot as early 
as the fifth century before Christ. The 
jurymen cast a white 'pebble, bean, or ball 
for acquittal and a black one for convic¬ 
tion. Sometimes shells or pieces of metal 
were used as ballots. An unpierced shell 
corresponded to a white ball; a pierced 
shell to a black ball. A very pretty sys¬ 
tem of writing the names of candidates on 
olive leaves was in use in Syracuse. As 
early as 139 B. C. the Gabinian law pro¬ 
vided ballot boxes for elections in the 
Roman Assembly. The method adopted 
by the Romans seems quite modern. The 
names of candidates were written on taD- 
lets. The votes were thrown into a chest, 
where they were guarded by inspectors. 
Clerks counted the votes and handed them 
over to the judges. In case of a tie, the 
election was decided by lot. 

Voting by ballot is an old English 
custom. White and black balls were used 
by many societies in voting for new mem¬ 
bers. White balls were favorable; black 
balls unfavorable. To vote against a pro¬ 
posed member was to “blackball” him. 


The directors of the Virginia Company 
were elected every year by ballot. Pub¬ 
lic elections by ballot were not introduced 
into England, however, until 1872. In 
England the system of voting by word of 
mouth in public was long depended upon 
by landlords and politicians as a means 
of controlling the votes of their tenants 
and followers. Daniel O’Connell intro¬ 
duced a bill on the subject in 1830, but 
Parliament rejected it. Macaulay and the 
historian Grote favored the ballot. Syd¬ 
ney Smith, leader of the wits, ridiculed 
the ballot box as a “mouse trap to catch 
voters.” Land owners, generally, opposed 
balloting strenuously on the ground that 
an open vote developed manliness and 
courage, while balloting gave opportunity 
for sneaking and deception. In 1870 the 
question of the ballot came to a head. 
Lord Ilartington reported for a committee 
that “corruption, treating, and intimida¬ 
tion by priests and landlords took place 
to a large extent at both parliamentary 
and municipal elections in both England 
and Ireland; and that the ballot, if 
adopted, would probably not only promote 
tranquility at elections, but protect voters 
from undue influence, and introduce great¬ 
er freedom and purity in voting, provided 
secrecy was made inviolable.” After try¬ 
ing the ballot system in an experimental 
way, the Ballot Act of Mr. Forster, in 
1872, required the voters at all parliamen¬ 
tary and municipal elections, except in 
universities, to use ballots. 

So far as known the first written ballot 
cast in America was that for the pastor of 
a Salem church, July 20, 1629. The 
ballot gradually supplanted open voting. 
Voting by ballot became general in New 
England at an early date. No other meth¬ 
od has ever prevailed in the West. Sev¬ 
eral of the Southern States, however, ad¬ 
hered to the open ballot until quite recent¬ 
ly. Kentucky did not adopt the ballot 
system for local and state elections until 
1891. Formerly each party prepared its 
own ballot. Although the laws require 
that all ballots be printed on white paper, 
there are different degrees of whiteness and 
different sizes of paper. It was still quite 
possible to determine from the appearance 


BALLS BLUFF—BALSAM 


of the ballot what party the voter was 
supporting. To afford greater secrecy, a 
method was devised in South Australia, 
and has been adopted by a number of 
states. According to the Australian sys¬ 
tem, one ballot, officially prepared, con¬ 
tains the names of all the candidates for 
the several offices. The voter is handed 
one of these ballots. He retires to a booth 
by himself where he marks the names of 
those for whom he wishes to vote. 

Balls Bluff, Battle of, a minor engage¬ 
ment of the Civil War, fought October 21, 
1861, at Balls Bluff, Va., on the Potomac 
River, about 30 miles northwest of Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., between a Federal force of 
about 2,000 under Col. E. D. Baker and 
a Confederate force of about 3,000 under 
Gen. N. G. Evans. The Confederates 
were victorious. The Federals lost in 
killed, wounded, and missing, about 900, 
including Col. Baker, who was killed; 
the Confederates less than 300. This 
battle had an effect greatly out of propor¬ 
tion to its military importance. The result 
inspired the South and depressed the 
North. 

Balm of Gilead, a resinous liquid ob¬ 
tained from incisions in the bark of a 
small tree in Arabia and Abyssinia. It 
was counted a precious substance in Bible 
times for its fragrance and medicinal qual¬ 
ities. It is a yellow, honey-like substance. 
Mixed with oil, it constitutes the sacred 
ointment used in the Roman Catholic 
church at the consecration of a bishop, and 
in the rites of baptism of children, con¬ 
firmation of church members, ordinations 
of the clergy, and coronation of kings. It 
is used also in the consecration of churches, 
altars, and baptismal fonts. The name 
Balm of Gilead is applied in the United 
States to a large, glossy-leafed, waxy, 
warty poplar, which, because of its spread¬ 
ing branches, is sometimes planted as a 
shade tree. The large buds are covered 
with a resinous gum, hence the name. 

Balmoral, bal-mor'al, originally a spe¬ 
cial variety of woolen petticoat dyed red, 
with blue and black stripes around the bot¬ 
tom. When these were worn, the dress 
skirt was tucked up or looped to display 
the gay undergarment. The fashion was 


first adopted by the daughters of Queen 
Victoria during their residence at Balmor¬ 
al, Scotland. The meaning of the name 
Balmoral has been extended to include va¬ 
rious articles of dress of unusual strength 
and weight. Balmoral shoes are stout 
walking shoes laced in front. George 
Eliot speaks of “a man who uses his bal- 
morals to tread on your toes.” 

Balmoral Castle, for many years the 
autumn home of Queen Victoria and her 
family. It is situated in northern Scot¬ 
land, in a beautiful dell of Braemar, for¬ 
ty-eight miles west of Aberdeen. Prince 
Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, bought 
the estate for $150,000 in 1848-52, and 
erected the present castle of granite. The 
estate now includes 40,000 acres, three- 
fourths of which are a deer forest, with 
several fine trout lochs. Queen Victoria 
was very partial to Balmoral and is remem¬ 
bered there with intense affection. For 
many years fashions were supposed to be 
set by Balmoral and the name became at¬ 
tached to various articles of feminine at¬ 
tire. See Victoria. 

Balsam, a kind of resinous oil. There 
is confusion in the use of the term. The 
lumberman would be surprised to learn 
that it is applied to anything but the fra¬ 
grant, balsam-producing fir tree of his 
northern woods and swamps. The flor¬ 
ist’s balsam is the garden touch-me-not. 
The woodman of Ohio might very possi¬ 
bly sell you a load of resinous poplar as 
“balsam.” Ask a druggist for balsam, and 
he would be likely to offer a bottle of 
medicine extracted from a beautiful tree 
of Peru and Mexico, or else balsam of 
Tolu from the forests of the Magdalena. 
Generally speaking, the term applies to a 
healing, medicinal, resinous oil, and to the 
several widely different plants producing 
it. The balsam of the botanist is an herb 
with alternate leaves, and showy, some¬ 
what clustered, yellow flowers. There are 
about 220 species, most of which are na¬ 
tives of tropical Asia. They have been 
introduced into many other countries. 
Beside being called balsam this herb is 
also known as jewel-weed, or snap-weed. 
It grows wild in moist grounds or along 
brooks or streams from Nova Scotia to 


BALTIC SEA—BALTIMORE 


Oregon and Alaska* south to Florida and 
Missouri. The cultivated varieties are of 
many colors, red, white, or purple, and 
the flowers are larger than those of the 
wild species. See Balm of Gilead. 

Baltic Sea, a shallow, irregular-shaped 
body of water, extending in a northeaster¬ 
ly direction from the North Sea. The 
name, it is thought, signifies white. The 
Baltic separates Germany and Russia 
from the lower extremity of the Scandi¬ 
navian Peninsula. Denmark guards the 
entrance. In 1895 a ship canal was com¬ 
pleted between the mouth of the Elbe near 
Hamburg and Kiel Bay on the Baltic. It 
lies entirely within German territory, and 
shortens the route from London to Baltic 
ports by several hundred miles. The wa¬ 
ters of the Baltic are fresher than those 
of the ocean. Owing to the large num¬ 
ber of rivers that empty into it, they con¬ 
tain only one-fifth as much salt as does 
seawater. They are also clearer, and 
freeze more readily. The arms and har¬ 
bors of the Baltic are covered with ice 
during the winter season and the sea is 
closed to navigation. The coasts of the 
Baltic have long been famous for amber, 
still cast ashore. The open sea has a 
reputation for rough weather, but there 
are many safe ports. The tides rise and 
fall about a foot. With its arms, the Gulf 
of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia, the 
area of the Baltic is about twice that of 
our Great Lakes. The area drained into 
the Baltic is a fifth of all Europe. The 
fauna is that of a body of fresh water. 
Whales seldom venture in. The water is 
too fresh to sustain the life of oysters, but 
salmon, salmon-trout, and small herring 
are abundant. The fishing season is cut 
short by winter. At this season fishermen 
are afraid of being surrounded by floating 
ice and frozen in. See Stockholm; 

Baltimore, the chief city of Maryland, 
and the metropolis of a large territory. 
It is named for Lord Baltimore, whose 
colors, orange and black, are worn by the 
familiar oriole. It is built on a harbor¬ 
like spur of the Patapsco. This river is 
practically an arm of the Chesapeake. 
It is only fourteen miles in length, but it 


is navigable for ships of twenty-seven feet 
draught. In 1729 a farm occupying the 
site of the present heart of the city was 
laid off into blocks and streets. In 1752 
there were but twenty-five houses, only 
four of which were of brick. At the open¬ 
ing of the Revolutionary War there were 
about 6,000 inhabitants. In the early part 
of the nineteenth century Baltimore was a 
rival of New York. The building of the 
Erie Canal and the railroads that lead 
through the long pass of the Hudson and 
Mohawk valleys decided the contest in 
favor of New York. Baltimore fell behind 
neither for lack of enterprise nor on ac¬ 
count of local facilities, but because the 
products of the West could reach the sea¬ 
board more cheaply by way of the Mohawk 
Valley than over the high ridges of the 
Appalachian Mountains. If a low pass 
had existed between the valley of the Ohio 
and that of the Potomac, it is probable 
that the chief commercial city of the 
United States would have been located on 
the Chesapeake, presumably at Baltimore. 
Nevertheless the city has prospered won¬ 
derfully. The Civil War gave it prestige 
by interfering with the business of south¬ 
ern rivals. Baltimore now has an area of 
nearly 32 square miles. The census of 
1920 reported a population of 733,820, 
making Baltimore the seventh city in the 
Union. In exports it ranks second in the 
Union, and in imports it is fifth. The 
annual exports to foreign countries, in¬ 
cluding corn, small grain, flour, live stock, 
provisions, tobacco, boots, shoes, cotton, 
oysters, canned fruits, vegetables and ma¬ 
chinery, cannot be far from $120,000,000 
in value. • It is the American port of a 
number of transatlantic steamship lines, in¬ 
cluding the North German Lloyd, Ham- 
burg-American, and Red Star lines, and 
is also in regular communication by steam¬ 
er with all the principal Atlantic ports 
from Halifax to New Orleans. A large 
number of railroads, including the Balti¬ 
more & Ohio, and the Pennsylvania, serve 
the city. Baltimore is an important manu¬ 
facturing center, its industrial plants num¬ 
bering more than six thousand. The most 
important products of these plants are 
men’s clothing, cotton ducking, fertilizer, 


BALTIMORE—BALUCHISTAN 


straw goods, ships, flour, furniture, tobacco, 
canned fruit, canned oysters, sheet iron, 
tin and copper ware, planing mill products 
and machinery. It is one of the leading 
oyster markets of the world, and one of 
the greatest corn exporting cities. 

The various sections of the city meet at 
all sorts of angles. Until lately, the 
streets of Baltimore were paved with cob¬ 
blestones ; these have now given way to 
smooth modern paving in the larger por¬ 
tion of the city. The public squares and 
principal parts of the city are beautifully 
laid out, surrounded by handsome build¬ 
ings, and adorned with statues. The 
Washington monument in Mt. (Vernon 
Place is 180 feet in height, with a colossal 
statue of George Washington on the sum¬ 
mit. A winding stairway of 220 steps 
within the shaft leads to the top, from 
which one can obtain a magnificent view 
of the Chesapeake, the Patapsco, the city, 
and its harbor guarded by old Fort Mc¬ 
Henry, o’er which “the star spangled ban¬ 
ner still waves.” Among other memorials 
earning for Baltimore the title of the 
“Monumental City,” is one erected to com¬ 
memorate those who lost their lives in de¬ 
fending the city against the British in 
1814. Baltimore has been fortunate in the 
liberality of its wealthy merchants. The 
Peabody Institute, the Enoch Pratt Free 
Library, and the Johns Hopkins Hospital 
are memorials of the men whose names 
they bear. 

Maryland was settled largely by Cath¬ 
olics, and in Baltimore the members of the 
Roman Catholic Church outnumber those 
of any other denomination. 

In addition to the public schools and 
a number of denominational and charitable 
institutions, Baltimore is fortunate in the 
possession of Johns Hopkins University, 
a richly endowed institution noted for. 
scholarship. It does not offer courses in 
the lower years of college work, but de¬ 
votes its energies to advanced instruction, 
in which it ranks favorably with the most 
renowned universities in Europe. Among 
other important educational institutions are 
Bryn Mawr, Loyola College, Saint Jo¬ 
seph’s Seminary, and De Sales Academy. 


See Key, Johns Hopkins, Chesa¬ 
peake, Maryland, Oyster. 

Baltimore, Lord (1580-1632), a title 
created by King James I for Sir George 
Calvert. Calvert was secretary of state to 
James I for some years and was knighted 
by him in 1617. A few years later he was 
converted to the Roman Catholic religion 
and on this account resigned his position. 
He retained, however, the favor and confi¬ 
dence of the king, who raised him to the 
Irish peerage with the hereditary title of 
Lord or Baron Baltimore. He received 
also a patent as Lord of Avalon in New¬ 
foundland. He found this colony so ex¬ 
posed to French attack that he left it, ob¬ 
taining in its place a grant for Maryland. 
Before the charter was completed Lord 
Baltimore died, but the charter was given 
to his son, Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, 
who founded the colony of Maryland. 
The city of Baltimore was named for this 
family, and since Lord Baltimore’s colors 
were black and orange, the Baltimore 
oriole, one of our brightest birds, has 
received his name. 

Baltimore Oriole, (Golden Robin, 
Hang Bird or Fire Bird), a songster that 
builds its home in the northern part of the 
United States during the summer, well 
known for its sweet whistling and gorgeous 
plumage. By preference it makes its nest, 
which is in the main the work of the 
female, in the swaying branches of the elm 
or willow. This nest is a pendent struc¬ 
ture in the form of a long sac with an 
opening at the top, hanging some distance 
from the ground and covered with leaves. 
It is constructed principally of vegetable 
fibers, grass, strips of bark, strings, etc. 
The eggs are dull white with dashes of 
brown, and number from four to six. The 
feathers of the male bird are a shining 
black on head and upper parts, wings 
white-tipped, and the under parts a bril¬ 
liant yellow. His mate is much smaller 
and paler in coloring. The favorite food 
of the oriole is caterpillars, small insects, 
etc., so they are useful and harmless. 

Baluchistan', a dependency of India. 
It lies on the northwestern frontier of 
India. It lies between Afghanistan and 
the Arabian Sea. The entire country may 


BALZAC 




be classified as British “administered” ter¬ 
ritory, native states, and tribal areas. The 
total area is 134,638 square miles. The 
population is about 850,000. In matters 
of religion nineteen-twentieths of the 
people are Mohammedans. The surface 
consists largely of deserts, stony plains, and 
mountains. The climate is considered se¬ 
vere. Rainfall is uncertain. Neverthe¬ 
less, the soil is fertile wherever water can 
be had. Corn, potatoes, millet, alfalfa, 
rice, wheat, and barley are important 
crops. Melons, grapes, apricots, peaches, 
apples, and, on the coast, dates, are grown 
to perfection. Camels, horses, cattle, and 
donkeys are the most important domestic 
animals. As in Afghanistan and Persia, 
the peasants excel in making rugs, blan¬ 
kets, needlework, leather work, and pot¬ 
tery. 

Balzac, bal'zak, Honore de (1779- 

1850), a noted French novelist. He was 
born at Tours. He began his literary ca¬ 
reer as a writer for the Paris papers, but 
soon developed into a writer of anonymous 
novels. At the age of thirty, The Last 
of the Chouans appeared over his own 
name. It is not only one of his best stories, 
but the one best fitted, perhaps, for young 
readers. Balzac planned a vast series of 
novels to be known as The Human Com¬ 
edy, in which he proposed to classify the 
follies and peculiarities of human nature 
in four groups of novels, entitled: Scenes 
of Private Life; of Parisian Life; of Po¬ 
litical Life; of Military Life. He ac¬ 
tually wrote eighty-five novels in twenty 
years. Library sets of his works contain 
twenty-five volumes. He aimed to leave 
to future generations a series of social pic¬ 
tures such as he wished had been left by 
earlier writers. 

Bamboo, a genus of grasses. Fishing 
poles from the canebrakes of Kentucky 
are not genuine bamboos, but they are 
closely related to bamboos and give a good 
idea of them. There are 200 kinds of 
bamboos growing in tropical countries 
everywhere from Equador to the East In¬ 
dies. The pygmy bamboo of Japan is 
only a hand’s breadth high and forms a 
carpet underfoot. The bamboo of Quito 
reaches sixteen inches in diameter and a 


height of a hundred feet. Bamboos grow 
at the sea level and at an elevation of 
12,000 feet up the sides of tropical moun¬ 
tains. Generally speaking, however, the 
common bamboo is the particular species 
cultivated in Japan, China, India, Siam, 
and the East Indian archipelago. Ex¬ 
cept that it is larger, it resembles our Ken¬ 
tucky cane very closely. The stems are 
slender. A five-inch cane rises to a height 
of fifty feet; a bamboo eighty feet high 
seldom exceeds a foot in diameter. The 
stem, like that of oats and all other 
grasses, is hollow, jointed, and hardened 
like flint on the outside. Bamboos grow 
with great rapidity, shooting up under fa¬ 
vorable conditions from six to thirty 
inches a day. Delicate foliage springing 
from the joints give the upper part of the 
stem a plume-like appearance. 

The uses to which an ingenious but not 
enlightened people can put bamboo are 
numerous and interesting. Bamboo stems 
form the framework of houses. Bamboo 
splints are woven into lattice work for out¬ 
er walls and partitions. Split bamboo is 
used for floors, and the roof is made of 
bamboo leaves laid on bamboo poles. The 
joints of the stem are several feet in length 
and, being water-tight, serve a variety of 
domestic purposes. Joints from trees of 
large size cut to short lengths make pails, 
tubs, pans, and crocks. Smaller canes 
furnish cups, bottles, and jars. Babies 
are rocked in bamboo cradles and sleep on 
bamboo matting. The Chinaman uses a 
section of bamboo for a pillow and, dur¬ 
ing a scarcity of rice, eats a breakfast pre¬ 
pared from the seeds of the bamboo. 
Young shoots are used like asparagus and 
a fluid collecting at the bottom of the 
joints hardens into a valued medicine. 
Bamboos are used for masts of ships, for 
which several are sometimes lashed togeth¬ 
er. By boring out the partitions, long 
canes are used for water pipes for reser¬ 
voirs and gardens. Bows are made by 
lashing two bamboo splints together, and 
slender shoots supply arrows. A joint of 
bamboo makes an excellent receptacle for 
papers. Silkworms were first smuggled 
out of China in a joint of bamboo. Orien¬ 
tal people make beautiful bamboo chairs. 



BAN—BANANA 


baskets, cages, and wicker work of many 
kinds. Paper is made from the inner wall 
of the cane, and the outer wall is so flinty 
that it may be whittled into reasonably 
serviceable knives. A vast amount of bam¬ 
boo is imported into Europe for umbrella 
handles, walking sticks, split-bamboo fish¬ 
ing rods, basketry, and wicker work. 
While bamboo is not indispensable, in the 
sense that its place may not be filled by 
steel or some other form of iron, we may 
say that it is one of the most serviceable 
plants known and that it meets the present 
wants of the people in the most densely 
inhabited parts of the world. 

Ban, a term akin to banner, meaning 
to publish or proclaim. Instead of ob¬ 
taining a license from the clerk of the 
court, it was formerly the custom, both in 
Great Britain and the United States, for 
those intending to be married to have 
their bans proclaimed in church a few 
weeks before the wedding. Any having 
objections to the marriage were called 
upon to “forbid the bans,” or ever after¬ 
ward hold their peace. The custom still 
prevails in the Catholic church. In history 
the term has, however, a somewhat dif¬ 
ferent significance, a ban being equivalent 
to a sentence of outlawry. One who had 
been “banned,” or placed under the ban of 
the empire, might be killed like any wild 
beast. Chambers gives the following for¬ 
mula employed on such occasions: 

We declare thy wife a widow and thy chil¬ 
dren orphans; we restore all thy feudal tenures 
to the lord of the manor: thy private property 
we give to thy children : and we devote thy body 
and flesh to the beasts of the forest and the 
fowls of the air. In all ways, and in every 
place where others find peace and safety, thou 
shalt find none and we banish thee into the 
four roads of the world—in the devil’s name. 

Bana'na, a tropical plant much prized 
for its fruit. Botanically speaking, it is 
a small-fruited form of the tropical plan¬ 
tain, of which Humboldt says an acre will 
produce as much food as forty-four acres 
of potatoes or one hundred thirty-three 
acres of wheat. Members of the plantain 
family are raised usually by planting suck¬ 
ers that spring from the base of an old 
plant. The leaves of a plantain enwrap 
each other at the base, forming a false 
stalk, in the larger kinds fifteen or twen¬ 


ty feet high, from which the leaf blades, 
often ten feet long and three feet wide, 
droop away gracefully. These false 
stems get their growth in from eight to 
fifteen months. They enwrap a flower 
stem that produces large spikes of flowers 
which are followed by hands of fruit. 
These hands form a large, heavy bunch 
which lops over and hangs downward. 

he plantain fruit of the Pacific islands 
varies in shape from the cucumber form 
o the banana, with slight angles, to a 
orm almost globular. Frequently they 
are boiled or fried like potatoes and grated 
or ground for flour. Cloth may be woven 
. rom ^be thready part of the leaves. Cook¬ 
ing plantains from British Honduras 
rea,ch the markets of New Orleans and are 
gaining in popularity as vegetables. 

There are, in all, over forty species of 
plantain. Two of the species produce the 
sweet, seedless fruit known as bananas. 
One dwarf species is raised chiefly in the 
Canary Islands for the London market, 
t grows also in Africa. The species of 
plantain known as the commercial banana 
is cultivated chiefly in Central America 
and the West Indies. A strip along the 
very edge of the United States from Flori¬ 
da to California is sufficiently free from 
severe frosts to encourage small planta¬ 
tions,. but the small states of Central 
America are the great shippers of bana¬ 
nas. Bananas are raised with little labor. 
A few acres of jungle must be cleared 
and plowed or grubbed up. Banana 
shoots are planted usually about twelve 
feet apart, though some planters set them 
m clumps twenty-five feet apart. They 
soon shade the soil completely. Each 
plant bears a bunch of bananas yearly. 
As soon as the fruit is cut off the stem is 
cut down. A circle of suckers starts up 
at once. About all the banana planter has 
to do is to market his bananas and thin 
out the suckers. His plants reach ma¬ 
turity irregularly, thus yielding a perpetu¬ 
al crop. The banana plant has few dis¬ 
eases. Were the climate more endurable, 
banana raising would be an easy way of 
making a fortune. 

The marketing of bananas is an easy 
matter, and yet it is a business requiring 


BANBURY—BANCROFT 


skill and celerity. Green bananas require 
neither crates nor barrels, but should not 
be bruised. They ripen rapidly in transit, 
but they may not be carried in cold stor- 
agej for, if a banana be cooled below 
50° F., the process of ripening is checked 
and the flavor is destroyed. If a banana 
were ripe when it left Costa Rica, it would 
not keep long enough to reach the market. 
Bananas must be cut green and sent to rip¬ 
en on the way. The business of buying and 
marketing is in the hands of large com¬ 
panies. Spur railway tracks lead into the 
hearts of banana plantations. Word comes 
to the planters by telephone that a ship 
load is wanted on the morrow. The plan¬ 
tations wake up. The green bunches, 
varying from thirty to one hundred pounds 
in weight, are placed in freight cars stand¬ 
ing in the fields and are hurried off to the 
coast and, within possibly twenty-four 
hours after the order has come, 30,000 
bunches have been cut from the stalk and 
stowed in the hold of a ship bound for 
Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, or some 
other Gulf port. In port the bunches are 
unloaded by laying them in the pockets of 
a hugh canvas carrier, that runs like an 
endless belt, and elevates the bananas at 
the rate of 2,500 bunches an hour. They 
are then sent in car lots to wholesalers in 
interior distributing cities who deliver 
bunches to local customers or send them 
out by train to retailers in every town and 
hamlet in their territory. A bunch of ba¬ 
nanas, once cut off by the swinging ma¬ 
chete (ma-sha'ta) of the swarthy peon, 
loses no time by land, sea, or rail in hurry¬ 
ing to the window of the village grocer. 

Banana raising as an industry is yearly 
increasing in importance, and one result 
of the increase is the improvement in the 
quality of the product. The latest figures 
available give $19,088,000 as the value of 
the bananas imported into the United 
States. Mexico has recently come to the 
fore as a producer of bananas; and as 
Mexico is the closet producer to the United 
States, bananas from that country easily 
find a market. The latest statistics give 
1,345,709 bunches as the annual Mexican 
banana imports into the United States. 

See Panama, Tarantula, Sisal. 


Banbury, a town of Oxfordshire, Eng¬ 
land. It is situated on the Cherwell, twen¬ 
ty-two miles north of Oxford. It is a 
town of about 13,000 people. Banbury 
of Merrie England was a noted market 
town. Banbury ale and cakes were fa¬ 
mous. Banbury cheeses were so thin that 
they were “all paring.” Shakespeare al¬ 
ludes to persons as thin as a Banbury 
cheese. The town appears to have been 
a Puritan stronghold, at least the expres¬ 
sion “Banbury saint” and “Banbury man” 
were used to denote a Puritan. The cus¬ 
tomary cross that stood in the old open 
air market of Banbury is famous in nurs¬ 
ery rhyme. It was taken down some¬ 
time during the reign of Elizabeth, but it 
is still celebrated in the nursery rhyme: 

Ride a cock horse 
To Banbury Cross, 

To see an old woman 
Upon a grey horse. 

With rings on her fingers 
And bells on her toes, 

She shall make music 
Wherever she goes. 

Ride a cock horse 
To Banbury Cross, 

To see what Tommy can buy 
A white penny loaf, 

A white penny cake, 

And a twopenny apple pie. 

Bancroft, George (1800-1891), an 
eminent American historian. He was born 
at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1800, and 
died at Washington in 1891. His father 
was a Unitarian clergyman. Bancroft was 
educated at Phillips Academy, Exeter, and 
at Harvard University. He was sent abroad 
to study, and to make the acquaintance of 
eminent European professors. He received 
the degree of Ph. D. at Gottingen in 1818. 
Among the acquaintances formed were 
Humboldt, Goethe, Hegel, and Wolf. Af¬ 
ter his return he held various educational 
positions, but became interested in polit¬ 
ical life, being an ardent supporter of the 
Democratic party. President Van Buren 
appointed him collector of customs at Bos¬ 
ton; under Polk he was secretary of the 
navy, and was instrumental in establish¬ 
ing the naval academy at Annapolis, 
Maryland. He favored the annexation of 
Texas. At other times he represented his 


BANCROFT-^BANDAGE 


country at the courts of Great Britain, 
Russia, and Germany. During all these 
years Bancroft was ransacking dusty ar¬ 
chives at home and abroad and reading 
faded documents. He was collecting ma¬ 
terial for the great work by which he 
is known, a History of the United States, 
from the discovery of America to the for¬ 
mation of the Constitution. Other his¬ 
torians have had access to information 
not at his command, but his history will 
always be regarded as a monument of 
American scholarship. We make room for 
a short passage: 

Darkness closed upon the country and upon 
the town ; but it was no night for sleep. Her¬ 
alds on swift relays of horses transmitted the war 
message from hand to hand, till village repeated 
it to village; the sea to the backwoods; the 
plains to the highlands. 

The Alleghanies, as they listened, opened their 
barriers that the “loud call” might pass through 
to the hardy riflemen. . . . Ever renewing its 
strength, powerful enough even to create a com¬ 
monwealth, it breathed its inspiring word to the 
first settlers of Kentucky; so that hunters who 
made their halt in the matchless valley of the 
Elkhorn commemorated the nineteenth day of 
April by naming their encampment Lexington. ■ 

Bancroft, Herbert Howe (1832-), an 
American historian. He was born at 
Granville, Ohio. At the age of twenty 
he established a bookstore in San Fran¬ 
cisco. He became interested in Spanish- 
American history and began the collection 
of books. He purchased a large part of 
the library of Emperor Maximilian of 
Mexico and the library of George Squier, 
an archaeologist who had conducted exten¬ 
sive explorations in Central America. In 
all, Mr. Bancroft collected over 60,000 
volumes. He reduced this vast mass of 
material into something like a system by 
preparing an elaborate index. He then 
set about the preparation of a history of 
the Pacific coast from Alaska to Central 
America. Mr Bancroft died in 1918. 

From twelve to twenty accomplished linguists, 
we are told, have been constantly employed in 
Mr. Bancroft’s service since 1869. Secretaries 
have all this time been'reading, translating, sum¬ 
marizing, cataloguing and indexing the whole col¬ 
lection. The result attained at the cost of half 
a million dollars, is a mass of systematized in¬ 
formation, such as must make the users and the 
desirers of historical materials elsewhere deeply 
envious. . . . Mr. Bancroft has prepared from 


these materials, and published, a gigantic 
History of the Pacific States of America in thirty- 
four unusually large volumes.—J. F. Jameson. 

Band. In a general sense, a combina¬ 
tion of instruments organized for the play¬ 
ing of instrumental musie. In modern 
terminology, a grouping of instruments 
played on the march, and usually striking 
the keynote of a military parade. In 
modem military usage it is a development 
of the brass band. Until the thirteenth 
century there had been no effort toward 
uniting individual players into an organ¬ 
ization. The first attempt was the forming 
of trumpeters and pipers into guilds, and 
the first of these w r as probably the Brother¬ 
hood of Saint Nicholas, which was or¬ 
ganized in 1228 in Vienna. These guilds 
grew into town bands throughout Germany. 

The bands of today may be grouped as 
follows: (a) drum and fife, or drum and 
bugle; (b) brass band; (c) military band. 
The military band is the more important 
modern form of the town band. One of 
the great bands of the world is the United 
States Marine Band at Washington, which 
was brought to its high state of perfection 
under the leadership of John Philip Sousa. 
The band of the French Garde Repub- 
licaine is another of the famous bands of 
the world. 

Bandage. A strip of material in use 
by surgeons to apply pressure on a part 
or to retain dressings in place. The prin¬ 
cipal bandages are the roller and triangu¬ 
lar, and from these spring many deviations. 
Commonly, the bandage is a strip of linen, 
muslin, cheese-cloth or flannel, from 1 to 5 
or more inches wide and up to 10 yards 
long, depending on where it is to be used; 
this is rolled lengthwise, and is known as 
the roller bandage. It is applied spirally, 
each turn overlapping the preceding one 
about one-third of its width, and adjusted 
to widening or tapering by reversal or 
turning back upon itself. If properly ap¬ 
plied, it should give an even, uniform 
pressure. The spica bandage is used at 
the junction of a limb with the body. 

There are bandages for special purposes, 
such as the four-tailed, for the head or 
knee, used for keeping poultices in place, 
etc., which consists of a piece of cloth split 
on each side toward the center. When ap- 


BANDANA—BANGKOK 


plied, the ends are crossed and tied so as 
to form a cap. Roller bandages of crino¬ 
line, filled with fresh plaster of paris, are 
used in making plaster splints. These are 
first wet thoroughly and then rapidly ap¬ 
plied. Bandages of starch, dextrin and 
silica are much used to give firm, immova¬ 
ble dressings. 



Bandages 

1, 2, 3, Roller Bandages ; 4, 5, Triangular 
Bandages 


Bandana, a handkerchief of silk or cot¬ 
ton, having a ground of red, blue, or pur¬ 
ple, ornamented with a pattern in white. 
In certain localities, bandanas are used as 
neckerchiefs, and as head wraps for wo¬ 
men. For the latter purpose, they are 
knotted sometimes into turbans or caps. 
The word bandana is from a Hindu word 
signifying a method of dyeing, which con¬ 
sisted in a skillful tying of certain parts 
of the cloth, thus preventing those parts 
from being affected by the dye. The 
“bandana style” is a term used in the 
printing of textiles, and denotes the method 
used to dye and print bandanas. The 
handkerchiefs are first dyed a solid color. 
The pattern to be used is cut out of leaden 


plates. A smooth pile of handkerchiefs is 
laid between two of these plates and sub¬ 
jected to enormous pressure, sometimes ex¬ 
ceeding 500 tons. ‘ While under pressure 
a “discharging” fluid is allowed to run over 
the top plate. The fluid is prevented by 
the pressure from reaching any part of 
the fabric except that between the open 
figures of the pattern cut in the plates. 
The color is thus “discharged” in the form 
of the pattern. If a pattern in colors is 
desired, the color js printed upon the 
white spaces after the process described 
above is completed. With proper conve~ 
niences four men, can print 19,000 yards 
of oandanas in ten hours. See Printing; 
Dyeing. 

Banff, Alberta, one of the most famous 
resorts in America, visited each year by 
thousands of tourists who come to see the 
beauties of Rocky Mountains Park, the 
heart of the Canadian Rockies. Banff is 
unique among cities, for it has no elected 
officials; all control is in the hands of the 
park superintendent, an officer appointed 
by the Dominion government, which owns 
the town site and leases parts of it for 
private purposes. Banff was first settled 
in 1893, and was named for the Scotch 
town which was the ncme of Baron Mount 
Stephen. It lies at an altitude of about 
4,500 feet, on the main lire of the Cana¬ 
dian Pacific Railway, whose great hotel is 
the principal feature of the town. Cal¬ 
gary is eighty-two miles east, and the 
Alberta-British Columbia boundary is 
fifteen miles west. Normal population 
about 1,000. 

Bangkok, the capital city of Siam. It 
is situated on the Menam River, about 
twenty miles above its mouth. A central 
portion of the city lying on the east bank 
is surrounded by a wall twelve feet thick 
and surmounted by towers. The rest of the 
city stretches along on both sides of the 
river for miles. The ordinary buildings 
are constructed of bamboo. The streets 
are intersected in every direction with ca¬ 
nals. Many of the houses are built on 
piles. A very considerable part of the 
population lives in house boats. Seen from 
the river the appearance of the city is 
striking. There are over a hundred Bud- 


















BANGOR—BANK 


dhist temples, including one In which a jas¬ 
per statue of Buddha may be seen. The 
Great Pagoda is one of the wonderful 
buildings of the East. The king’s palace 
and grounds include a private temple, of¬ 
fices, the royal seraglio, stables for the 
sacred white elephant, etc. There are 
about twenty-six rice mills in the city. 
The city trades with Singapore, Hong 
Kong, and European ports. Silk and cot¬ 
ton goods, kerosene, sugar, opium, cutlery, 
and machinery are the chief imports. Rice, 
teak and other woods, pepper, hides, lac, 
birds’ nests, and many forest products are 
exported to the value of $25,000,000 a 
year. The city has a large trade up and 
down the river. There are two railways. 
Telegraphic communication has been es¬ 
tablished with outlying parts of the king¬ 
dom. The business portion of the city has 
postal delivery and a system of gas light¬ 
ing. The population according to the cen¬ 
sus of 1921 was 931,171. 

Bangor, ban'gor, a manufacturing city 
of Maine, the county seat of Penobscot 
County. It is situated about sixty miles 
from the river’s mouth, but as the harbor 
is accessible in the open season to all ex¬ 
cept the very largest shipping vessels, it 
has the advantages practically of a seaport. 
It is one of the largest lumber stations of 
the world. A dam across the river affords 
water power for the manufactures, which 
include flour and dairy products, shoes, 
clothing, furniture, trunks, carriages, and 
farming implements. There are also 
foundries, pork-packing houses and ship 
yards in the city. Its population in 1920 
was 25,978. 

Bangs, John Kendrick (1862-1922), 
an American humorist, editor and lecturer. 
He was born at Yonkers, N. Y. At Co¬ 
lumbia College, from which Mr. Bangs 
was graduated in 1883, he edited the 
Acta Columbia and first became known for 
his gift of humor. . Later, he was asso¬ 
ciated with Life, Harper's Weekly, the 
Metropolitan Magazine, and with Pack. 
Among the 40 or more humorous works 
that have endeared Mr. Bangs to the 
American people are Coffee and Repartee, 
The Idiot, A House Boat on the Styx, The 
Pursuit of the House Boat. 


Tiddledywinks Tales, In Camp with a Tin 
Soldier, and A Rebellious Heroine. 

Banjo, a stringed musical instrument. 
The body of the banjo is much like 
the tambourine, consisting of parchment 
stretched over a hoop; the head and neck 
are like those of the guitar. There are five 
strings usually, sometimes more, played by 
twitching or striking them with the fingers 
of the right hand and stopping them with 
the fingers of the left hand. The banjo 
is a favorite instrument among the negroes 
of the South, its tinkling melody, sweet 
and lively, but plaintive withal seeming 
peculiarly suited to the negro temperament. 
The name banjo is a negro corruption of 
the word bandore, which is from the Span¬ 
ish name of a three stringed instrument. 

“When shall I see the bees a humming 
All roun’ de comb? 

When shall I hear de banjo tumming 
Down in my good ole home ?” 

Bank, an institution devoted to the 
handling of money. The term is derived 
from the banca or banc on which the Ital¬ 
ian moneychanger sat. The name has 
been extended to the office in which a 
banking business is carried on. It is ap¬ 
plied also to the business organization it¬ 
self. The first public bank is said to have 
been established in Venice in 1550. The 
early bankers were Jews. 

Banks are open usually in the middle 
of the day, or from nine to four. The 
morning and evening hours are required to 
check up accounts and to see that no mis¬ 
takes have been made. Banks are closed 
on Sundays and on bank holidays. New 
Year’s Day, the Fourth of July, Christmas 
Day, and Thanksgiving are bank holidays 
everywhere. The anniversary of Lin¬ 
coln’s Birthday, and of Washington’s 
Birthday, Labor Day, Good Friday, Deco¬ 
ration Day in the North, and Memorial 
Day in the South, are observed in most of 
the states. A note falling due on any of 
these dates is payable on the preceding day. 

There are several sorts of banks. Pri¬ 
vate banks are owned and managed by in¬ 
dividuals, just as any other business would 
be managed. They are dependent entirely 
upon the degree of confidence which the 
public may have in the proprietors. There 


BANK OF ENGLAND 


are not far from a thousand private banks 
in the United States. Some states forbid 
private banks. 

State banks are organized under the 
laws of the respective states. They are 
subject to inspection by the state examiner. 
They are required to keep a certain per¬ 
centage of their deposits on hand. The 
proportion of their capital banks are per¬ 
mitted to loan is limited by law; also the 
amount an officer or director may borrow. 
Some states forbid the loan of money on 
real estate, because it requires too much 
time to get it in again in case it should be 
needed to pay depositors. There are be¬ 
tween four and five thousand state banks 
with total deposits reaching into ten fig¬ 
ures. 

Savings banks may be divided into two 
classes. All the profits made by mutual 
savings banks are distributed among de¬ 
positors. The directors serve frequently 
without pay until a bank’s earnings have 
reached a certain percentage of its de¬ 
posits. Other savings banks are operated 
by stock companies for profit. Almost all 
state and national banks have savings de¬ 
partments. The distinguishing feature of 
savings banks is that of paying a low rate 
of interest on deposits and of loaning the 
same on the best of security. Wage earn¬ 
ers and others are invited to make small 
deposits as often as possible. A well man¬ 
aged savings bank does much to encourage 
thrift and economy. There are over a thou¬ 
sand savings banks in this country with 
aggregate deposits exceeding those of state 
and private banks put together. The loan 
and trust companies belong to this class of 
institutions. 

National banks w^ere first organized un¬ 
der a congressional act of June 3, 1864, 
According to its provisions as amended by 
subsequent legislation, at least five per¬ 
sons must associate and pay in a capital 
of not less than $25,000. National banks 
are required to invest a certain proportion 
of their capital—one-fourth when the capi¬ 
tal of the bank is $150,000 or less, and 
one-third when the capital exceeds that 
amount—in United States bonds. These 
bonds must be deposited in the national 
treasury as security for currency the bank 


is authorized to issue. A bank may isssue 
paper money up to the full par value of 
the bonds deposited with the government. 
The government prints all bank notes, and 
redeems them in case of the bank’s failure. 
There were, in 1917, 7,589 national banks 
having a capital of more than $1,000,000,- 
000 and a surplus of nearly $800,000,000. 

Banks, Federal Reserve, a system of 
banks authorized December 23, 1913. The 
act provided for reserve banks located at 
central points throughout the United States. 
The organization was perfected and on No¬ 
vember 16, 1914, the banks were officially 
open for business. 

These banks are located in the following 
cities: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 
Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St/" 
Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas 
and San Francisco. All national banks 
must become members or stockholders in 
these banks and state banks may also. Each 
member bank must hold stock to the amount 
of six per cent of its own stock. 

These banks are governed by a Federal 
Board, consisting of the Secretary of the 
Treasury and Comptroller of Currency ex- 
officio, and five other members appointed 
by the President of the United States for a 
term of ten years, the term of two to ex¬ 
pire each two years. The salary of these 
members is set at $12,000 per year. 

The separate banks are each governed by 
a board of nine members who shall pass on 
all actions of the local bank, subject to the 
rules of the general board. 

These banks are really bankers’ banks 
and do no business with the general public. 
Provision is made whereby member banks 
can re-discount commercial paper and ob¬ 
tain funds for movement of crops and other 
legitimate operations. Funds may also be 
transferred from one branch to another 
when there is need for this. 

The plan provides elasticity in our cur 
rency system and prevents panics. 

See Money; Mint; Gold; Silver; 
Greenbacks; Clearing House. 

Bank of England, the principal bank 
of London, the greatest banking establish¬ 
ment in the world. Seen from the outside, 
it is a large, irregular, one-story building 
covering about four acres. It is surrounded 


BANKRUPTCY 


entirely by streets. For the sake of secur¬ 
ity, the outside walls are without windows. 
The offices are lighted from inside courts. 
Visitors and those having business enter 
through a guarded gateway in Thread- 
needle Street, whence the bank is called 
the “Old Lady of Threadneedle Street.” 
It was founded in 1694 by a shrewd 
Scotchman named William Paterson, who 
obtained a royal charter, conferring pow¬ 
er to issue paper money. It is still the 
only bank in London having that authority. 
The bank is a joint stock affair. The 
original capital was 1,200,000 pounds. 
Nine hundred employes are paid salaries 
varying from $250 to $6,000. The vaults 
contain usually from $75,000,000 to $100,- 
000,000 of gold and silver. This is about 
equal to the value of the Bank of England 
notes in circulation. The bank receives 
a grant of $1,000,000 a year for managing 
the national debt. This is a large sum to 
receive in a single commission, but it 
amounts only to one-thirty-eighth of one 
per cent. The bank does the usual bank¬ 
ing business, receiving deposits, cashing 
checks, and making loans. It is under ob¬ 
ligation to buy all ;he gold bullion offered 
at a price fixed by Parliament. The busi¬ 
ness of the bank amounts to about $10,- 
000,000 a day. It has its own printing 
room for the making of blank books and 
the printing of its own paper money. A 
bank note is never reissued. Even though 
a customer receive the note at one win¬ 
dow and pay it in at another, it is can¬ 
celled. The notes taken in each day are 
laid away carefully for ten years, in case 
they may be needed as evidence in some 
lawsuit. Each month a little furnace hold¬ 
ing several bushels is stuffed full of the 
notes taken in ten years before. See Wall 
Street. 

Bankruptcy, failure in business; ina¬ 
bility to pay one’s debts. The Italian 
money changer sat on a “banca” or bench. 
When he failed his bench was broken up 
or ruptured, and he was a bankrupt. Pun¬ 
ishment for debt was formerly very severe. 
The Hebrew’s wife and children were sold 
into slavery to pay debt. In Rome an 
unfortunate debtor became the slave of 
the man he owed. In England one who 


failed to meet his debts was ordered by the 
court to pay, and if he neglected to do so, 
he was thrown into prison for disobedience, 
so ran the legal fiction,—and stayed 
there at his own expense for food, fire, 
and clothing until, by compromise with his 
creditors or in some other way, he carried 
out the order of the court. The cruel 
spirit of 1663, the age when Carolina was 
peopled by debtors, is expressed by Justice 
Hyde in these words: “If a man is taken, 
and lies in prison for debt, neither the 
plaintiff, at whose suit he is arrested, nor 
the sheriff who takes him, is bound to find 
him meat, drink, or clothes. He must live 
on his own, or on the charity of others, and 
if no one will relieve him, let him die in 
the name of God, says the law, and so say 
I.” See Dickens’ Little Dorrit for an 
account of life for twenty-three years, fa¬ 
ther and child, in the debtors' prison at 
Marshalsea. 

It does not appear that the American 
colonists enacted laws for the imprisonment 
of debtors, but the practice prevailed. Au¬ 
thorities threw debtors into prison, just 
as a matter of course, in accordance with 
the English custom, under what is known 
as common law. Excessive cruelty does 
not appear to have prevailed in this coun¬ 
try, and yet it is not pleasant reading to 
know that Robert Morris, the financier of 
the American Revolution, was thrown into 
prison for his debts, and died there. Whit¬ 
tier has expressed his indignation in The 
Prisoner for Debt. In later days merciful 
views have prevailed. By giving over all 
his property, a business man may receive 
a discharge from legal obligations, and 
may start anew in the world. Many have 
in this way built up new fortunes, and 
have turned back in a spirit of honor and 
have paid up old obligations. 

Our constitution gives Congress author¬ 
ity to enact bankruptcy laws. Three such 
laws, 1800, 1841, 1867, were passed and 
subsequently repealed. In the absence of 
a national law, laws were enacted by 
each state. Under a new federal law 
taking effect July 1st, 1898, any person 
may appeal to the federal court for the 
division of his property among those he 
owes, and for permission to begin again 


i 


BANKRUPTCY—BANNOCKBURN 


free from debt. Anyone who has gotten 
into debt to the extent of a thousand dol¬ 
lars, and who is not a wage earner, is not 
a tiller of the soil, can be brought into 
court, and can be forced to assign his 
property for the benefit of his creditors in 
any one of the following cases: 

(1) His having concealed or trans¬ 
ferred any of his property with intent to 
hinder, delay, or defraud his creditors. 

(2) Transferring any of his property 
to a creditor to give him an advantage 
over other creditors. 

(3) Suffering a creditor to obtain an 
advantage over other creditors by legal 
procedure. 

The creditors, or the court, appoint a 
trustee whose duty it is to convert the 
bankrupt’s property into cash and distrib¬ 
ute it ratably. At the proper time the 
bankrupt is discharged, and may not be 
held for old debts. Bankruptcy proceed¬ 
ings begun under state laws prior to July, 
1898, were, of course, finished under state 
law. All state laws relating to bankruptcy 
are now suspended, but they would come 
into effect were the federal law repealed. 

The number of American bankruptcies 
and the total amount of liabilities may be 

read by years: 


Year Number Am’t Liability 

1918 . 9,982 $163,019,979 

1919 . 6,451 113,291,237 

1920 . 8,881 295,121,805 

1921 .19,652 627,401,883 


Bankruptcy in Canada. The Brit¬ 
ish North America Act of 1867 auth¬ 
orizes legislation by the Dominion parlia¬ 
ment on the subject of bankruptcy, 
but there is now no Dominion law in force. 
Such an act was passed a few months after 
the formation of the Dominion, and it was 
repealed in 1880, chiefly because it was in 
conflict with provincial laws which had 
previously been in effect. An act applying 
only to banks, insurance companies and 
similar institutions was passed in 1882, but 
■with this exception the regulation of bank¬ 
ruptcy has been left to the provinces. In 
Quebec, where the French civil code is 
still law, a debtor may “abandon” his prop¬ 
erty, but he is thereby relieved of his 
debts only to the amount which his cred¬ 
itors realize from it. In Quebec a creditor 


with a claim of not less than $200.00 can 
compel abandonment, but in none of the 
other provinces is there any procedure by 
which a creditor can compel a debtor to 
make an assignment. A debtor may, how¬ 
ever, make a voluntary assignment of his 
property to his creditors or for their bene¬ 
fit, but if the amount realized from its sale 
is not enough to pay everybody in full he 
is still under that obligation. If a debtor 
refuses to make an assignment, the creditor 
has no course except to bring suit and 
obtain judgment. Judgments are paid in 
the order of priority. 

Banks, Sir Joseph (1743-1820), an 
English naturalist. He was a native of 
London and was educated at Oxford. He 
inherited a fortune and gave himself to an 
enthusiastic studv of natural historv. He 
was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 
1766. He sailed with Captain Cook 1768- 
1771 in his famous voyage around the 
world, returning with a fine collection of 
plants and animals. He was made presi¬ 
dent of the Royal Society in 1 777, a posi¬ 
tion which he retained forty years. In 
1781 he was made a baronet. 

Bannockburn, a Scottish village three 
miles southeast of Stirling on a rivulet of 
the name. The name is derived evidently 
from bannock, a Scottish cake of unleav¬ 
ened oat or barley meal, baked on a hot 
griddle, and from burn, the Scottish name 
for a small stream. The battlefield of 
Bannockburn is one of the most celebrated 
in Scottish history. It was here that 
Robert the Bruce defeated the English 
forces under Edward II of England, June 
24, 1314. Bruce is thought to have had 
about 30,000 men and Edward about 100,- 
000. Bruce disposed his small army most 
skillfully, and rendered the English cav¬ 
alry useless by digging a large number of 
pits, in the bottom of which sharpened 
stakes were driven. These pits were so 
concealed by brush and grass that the 
English horse was afraid to venture among 
them. Among the traditions of the battle 
is one to the effect that, just before charg¬ 
ing the English lines, the handful of 
Scotch soldiers pulled off their blue bon¬ 
nets and knelt in prayer. The English 
monarch thought that they were making 






BANQUO—BAPTISM 


submission to him, but was soon unde¬ 
ceived. At the critical moment a horde 
of camp followers appeared on an eleva¬ 
tion behind the Scottish forces, and struck 
terror into the English, who thought that 
large reinforcements for the Scots were 
coming. The rout of the English was 
complete. The battle secured the inde¬ 
pendence of Scotland. 

At present the village has about 2,000 
inhabitants with prosperous manufactories 
of carpets, tartans and woolen cloth besides 
a number of other industries. Many tour¬ 
ists visit the battlefield. See Bruce ; Scot¬ 
land ; Stirling. 

Banquo, ban'kwd, in Shakespeare’s 
tragedy, Macbeth, a general in the king’s 
army, of equal rank with Macbeth. The 
“Weird Sisters” prophesy that Banquo’s 
descendants shall reign. Macbeth therefore 
hires assassins to slay him and his son. 
The son, however, escapes with his life. 
In one of the most powerful scenes of the 
play, the ghost of Banquo appears to Mac¬ 
beth in the seat reserved for Banquo at a 
banquet, but is invisible to the other guests. 

See Macbeth. 

Bantam, a well known variety of the 
domestic fowl. It was brought originally 
from the East Indies and is supposed to 
take its name from the seaport of Bantam, 
Java. The bantam weighs about a pound, 
not being much larger than a quail; but it 
is so full of fight that it drives ordinary 
fowls of five times its own weight. A 
small person of great pugnacity is not 
infrequently called a “bantam” in derision. 
See Chicken. 

Bantu, in African geography, a general 
term for a vast number of negro tribes and 
languages. The other great group of ne¬ 
groes is the Nigritic or Sudan. The Hot¬ 
tentots, Bushmen, and pygmies are ex¬ 
cluded from both groups. In general, the 
Bantu tribes inhabit that part of Africa 
lying south of the Sudan and Abyssinia. 
The Congo, Kaffir, and Zulu negroes are 
of this stock. 

Banyan, a tree of India. The banyan 
tree is noted for rooting branches. The 
main tree throws out vast branches at a 
great height like our hardwood trees. The 
lower and horizontal branches let drop 


slender shoots, which no sooner reach the 
ground at a distance of several yards, it 
may be, than they take root and form new 
stems, sending out branches at the top 
like those of the parent tree. In this way 
a single tree becomes a mountain of foliage, 
resting on a multitude of trunks which 
serve as supporting columns. Nearchus, 
the general of Alexander who conducted 
an expedition to the East, reported that he 
found a tree in India large enough to shel¬ 
ter an entire army. Seven thousand per¬ 
sons are known to have encamped under 
a banyan tree supposed to be the one de¬ 
scribed by Nearchus. A banyan tree, 
thirteen feet in diameter, in the botanical 
garden of Calcutta, has been described as 
having a main stem and 3,000 smaller ones. 
While the banyan grows throughout ex¬ 
tensive areas and is not useless, it is re¬ 
garded rather as a curiosity than otherwise. 
Hordes of chattering monkeys feed on its 
leaves and berries, and share its shelter 
with bright colored birds and enormous 
bats. 

Baobab, ba'6-bab, a tropical tree of 
western and southern Africa. A baobab 
tree in its glory forms a low, broad, hem¬ 
ispherical mass of green, perhaps sixty 
feet high and one hundred and fifty feet 
in diameter. The trunk of such a tree is 
thirty feet in diameter, half as thick as 
it is high. It has been called the largest 
known tree, but must yield this honor to 
the eucalyptus, or to giant trees of Cali¬ 
fornia. Large white flowers hang in 
drooping clusters a yard long. The fruit, 
called monkey’s bread, supports a crowd 
of these animals. It is useful to travelers 
to quench thirst and ward off pestilential 
fevers. Livingstone speaks of this tree in 
his South African travels. 

Baptism, a rite or ceremony by which a 
person is initiated into the Christian 
church. It consists in the application of 
water, either by pouring or sprinkling it 
upon the head, or by the immersion of the 
entire body. The term Baptism is derived 
from a Greek word, which means to dip or 
wash. The application of water is sym¬ 
bolic of cleansing from sin. 

The origin of the rite is not definitely 
known. Christian theologians quote the 


B. Y. P. U.—BARBADOS 


authority of the New Testament. Jesus 
himself was baptized by John the Baptist, 
in the River Jordan, and enjoined upon 
his apostles the duty of baptizing converts. 
It is probable, however, that the rite in 
some form was used long before. Much 
older than Christian baptism was a Pagan 
custom in parts of northern Europe which 
involved the use of water in naming a 
child. The newly born infant was pre¬ 
sented to the father who decided whether 
it should be reared, or exposed to death. 
If he decided that the child should live, 
he poured water upon it, giving it a name. 
After this ceremony to expose the child 
became a crime, but before it the father’s 
right to decide the matter was unques¬ 
tioned. Baptism in the early Greek church 
was called by many names, as “regenera¬ 
tion,” “illumination,” “mystery,” “seal of 
the Lord,” all of which indicate a pro¬ 
found belief in an inward spiritual change 
as the effect of the outward ceremony. 
Baptism came thus to be looked upon as 
sacred. It is still a sacrament of the 
church in all sects which acknowledge sac¬ 
raments. 

The subject of Baptism is one which has 
occupied theologians since the early days 
of Christianity. The origin of the rite, 
questions as to its form and its meaning, 
have given rise to endless discussions and 
controversies, and whole libraries have been 
written upon the subject. See Baptists. 

Baptist Young People’s Union of 
America, a federation of Baptist young 
people, organized July 7, 1891. The 
purposes of the organization and its meth¬ 
ods are closely allied to those of the Chris¬ 
tian Endeavor Society, and the Epworth 
League. There are branch societies in 
nearly every state and territory. The 
Union has its headquarters at Chicago. 
See Christian Endeavor; Epworth 
League. 

Baptists, a large religious denomina¬ 
tion. The sect originated in England dur¬ 
ing the reigns of Henry VIII and Eliza¬ 
beth, and has spread throughout all parts 
of the English speaking world. It is dif¬ 
ficult to state a religious belief in a few 
words. The Baptists inherited a reverence 
for the Scriptures and a Trinitarian faith 


from the Church of England. The de¬ 
nomination holds that baptism is a holy 
ordinance requiring an intelligent faith on 
the part of one who is baptized, and may 
therefore be administered only to adults. 
Infant baptism is, in their judgment, only 
a christening or naming, a dedication of 
the child by its parents, not the offering 
of one’s self implied in baptism. Immer¬ 
sion is the form of baptism generally pre- 
ferred. In Great Britain and Ireland at 
the present time there are about 3,000 
Baptist churches with a membership of 
one-third of a million. One of their most 
noted men was the late Rev. Charles Spur¬ 
geon, whose mammoth tabernacle and 
work in London have a world-wide repu¬ 
tation. 

Roger Williams, who was expelled from 
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, is con¬ 
sidered the founder of the Baptist church 
in America. In Boston, as late as 1661, 
Baptists were sentenced to be fined and 
“well whipped.” In 1678 the doors of 
their meeting house were ordered nailed 
up by the court. 

Recent Statistics. This denomination 
is now composed of three main groups: 
The Northern Convention, the Southern 
Convention, and the National Convention 
(colored). The report for 1921 shows a 
total membership in the United States of 
7,943,331 ; 59,744 churches and 42,088 or¬ 
dained ministers. In the Northern Con¬ 
vention there were 8,409 churches, 8,566 
ordained ministers and 1,253,878 members. 
The Southern branch had 29,551 churches, 
15,551 ordained ministers, and a member¬ 
ship of 3,434,246. The National Negro 
Convention had 20,486 churches, 17,103 
ministers, and a membership of 3,116,325. 

In Canada there are about 1,302 
churches with a membership of 138,882 
and 868 ministers. There are numerous 
smaller branches of the denomination, and 
all of these have separate organizations and 
carry on extension missionary work, 
up by the court. 

Barbados, bar-ba'doz, an island of the 
West Indies. It belongs to the United 
Kingdom. It lies at the eastern entrance 
to the Caribbean Sea and is the head¬ 
quarters for British troops in the West 


BARBARA FRIETCHIE—BARBER OF SEVILLE 


Indies. The entire area is about 166 
square miles. The population is 196,000. 
The capital is Bridgetown with 35,000 
people. About 100,000 acres are under 
cultivation, planted chiefly with sugar¬ 
cane. The island is well provided with 
churches, schools, and-courts. There are 
well built wagon roads, telephone lines, 
and one narrow gauge railway, twenty-one 
miles in length. The little island pub¬ 
lishes several newspapers, including three 
dailies. The exports are sugar, rum, pe¬ 
troleum for fuel, vegetables, and fish. 

Barbara Frietchie, a patriotic poem by 
John G. Whittier, written in 1863. The 
poem is based on an incident supposed to 
have occurred at Frederick, Maryland, 
during the Civil War. Doubt has been ex¬ 
pressed by many as to the truth of the 
story. Lossing, none too accurate, in his 
Pictorial History of the War, accepts it 
as fact. The poem is partisan. Terms 
are used that Whittier would have avoided 
when the years of strife were over, but 
the lines are spirited and give credit for 
character on both sides of the contest. 
Early in September, 1862, General Lee 
swept into Frederick City on the march 
that led to Antietam: 

Forty flags with their silver stars. 

Forty flags with their crimson bars, 

Flapped in the morning wind; the sun 
Of noon looked down, and saw not one. 

Up rose old Barbara Prietchie then, 

Bowed with her fourscore years and ten ; 

Bravest of all in Frederick town, 

She took up the flag the men hauled down; 

In her attic-window the staff she set, 

To show that one heart was loyal yet. 

Barbari, bar'ba-ri, the name given by 
the Greeks to all foreigners whose lan¬ 
guage was not Greek. SUch foreigners 
were regarded invariably as of inferior 
race. The Romans called all people who 
spoke neither Greek nor Latin Barbari. 

Barbarossa, Frederick I, Emperor of 
Germany. The term means “red beard.” 
See Frederick Barbarossa. 

Barbary, in geography and history, a 
general term applied to the northern coast 
of Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic. The 
name is derived from the Berbers, an an¬ 


cient people who were subjugated by the 
Arabs. See Algiers; Morocco; Tripoli. 

Barbecue, bar'be-ku, a West Indian 
word applied to a platform of sticks, sup¬ 
ported by posts. It is interesting to trace 
the history of the word. In Cuba, it is 
a platform of poles on which corn and 
fruits are stored. Next it is a scaffold 
on which to dry or smoke fish and fresh 
meats. Then a huge gridiron on which 
joints of meat may be roasted. Still later 
it is the carcass of a sheep, hog, or ox 
roasted whole, and finally a large social 
or political meeting at which a barbecued 
ox forms a prominent part of the enter¬ 
tainment. In the hard-cider, log-rolling 
presidential campaigns of William Henry 
Harrison’s day, barbecues were a promi¬ 
nent means of awakening jollity and en¬ 
thusiasm. While the political barbecue 
ha; not been abandoned entirely, it is 
not so popular as it once was. See Heca¬ 
tomb. 

Barber, one whose occupation is to 
shave or trim the beard and to cut and 
dress the hair. The term is derived from 
the Latin barba, meaning a beard. For¬ 
merly the victim who desired to be shaved 
sat on a high stool. He held a crescent¬ 
shaped or semi-circular basin under his 
chin, in which the barber made the lather 
and applied it with his hand. The brush 
and reclining barber’s chair are of recent 
invention. In early days the business of 
the barber and surgeon were combined in 
one. The king’s barber-surgeon was a 
man of eminent attainments. In the reign 
of Henry VIII the English surgeons 
secured the enactment of a law that bar¬ 
bers should confine themselves to the mi¬ 
nor operations of bloodletting and draw¬ 
ing teeth. Surgeons were forbidden to 
practice barbery or shaving. The barber’s 
sign or striped pole is a. relic of the days 
when the stripes represented the ribbons 
or bandage with which the barber wrapped 
the arm of a patient after letting blood. 
According to the latest census report, 
there are 131,116 barbers and hairdressers 
in the United States. See Surgery. 

Barber of Seville, a comedy by Beau¬ 
marchais, produced in 1775. Upon it was 
based the comic opera of the same name, 


BARBERRY—BARIUM 


by Rossini, produced in Rome in 1816, 
and a few years later in Paris. This opera 
was hissed the first night, but has since be¬ 
come one of the most popular light operas. 
See Figaro. 

Barberry, a low, ornamental shrub, ©f 
which there are about one hundred known 
species, all native to the temperate regions 
of the eastern and western hemispheres. 
The fruit of the shrub resembles in size, 
shape and color the common currant, but 
is usually too acid to be eaten. It is, how¬ 
ever, often used in making jellies. The 
fruit of one species, native to France, is 
used for the distillation of free malic acid ; 
and the fruit of another species is some¬ 
times dried and eaten like raisins. The 
yellow root and inner bark of the barberry 
is used in dyeing, and the bark is some¬ 
times used in tanning. 

Barcelona, a Mediterranean port of 
Spain. It is situated on a harbor at the 
mouth of two rivers about one hundred 
miles from the French frontier. Barce¬ 
lona was the capital of the ancient king¬ 
dom of Catalonia. It is still the seat of 
the Spanish province of that name. The 
city consists of a new part and an old. 
By 1845 the walls that surrounded the 
old city had been leveled, and the space 
given over for new buildings. The site 
of the old citadel was converted into a 
botanic garden. The streets within the 
old walls are crooked and narrow. The 
new city is laid out on the rectangular 
plan. It is well paved and is provided 
with electric lights and electric street rail¬ 
ways. A mole has been built to protect 
the harbor. The University of Barcelona, 
founded in 143C, now occupies buildings 
in the new city. Barcelona was at one 
time a rival of Genoa and of Venice. It 
is still the commercial center of eastern 
Spain. The city corresponds in Spain, 
to Marseilles, in France. Barcelona is the 
most important manufacturing city of 
Spain. It is the center of Spanish paper 
making. Esparto is the material chiefly 
used. There are manufactures also of 
cotton, silk, and woolen fabrics. Stone¬ 
ware, soap, chemicals, cannon, firearms, 
leather, glass, and machinery swell the 
volume of manufactured products. Bar¬ 


celona ranks next to Madrid in size. Pop¬ 
ulation of Barcelona in 1900, 533,000. 

Bard, a Celtic term applied to a rude 
poet or minstrel, particularly among the 
Welsh and Irish. The bard was held in 
high honor at feasts or solemn festivals. 
Like the minstrel, he sang or chanted 
songs composed in commemoration of no¬ 
ble deeds or designed to convey instruc¬ 
tion. In Scotland, the term was applied 
rather to a strolling singer of the vaga¬ 
bond nature. Shakespeare is called the 
“Bard of Avon,” though improperly, if the 
exact meaning of the term is adhered to. 
The euphony of the appellation is its only 
excuse. Burns delighted to speak of him¬ 
self as a bard. The following motto was 
prefixed to the Kilmarnock edition of his 
poems: 

The simple bard, unbroke by rules of art, 

He pours the wild effusions of the heart; 

And if inspired, ’t is Nature’s powers inspire: 
Hers all the melting thrill and hers the kindling 
fire. 

See Minstrel; Troubadours. 

Baring-Gould, baring-gold', Sabine 
(1834-), an English clergyman and au¬ 
thor. He was born at Exeter, received 
his education at Cambridge, and some 
years later became rector of Lew-Trench- 
ard in Devon. He is the author of many 
novels and miscellaneous writings. Ger¬ 
many Past and Present and The Story of 
Germany are, perhaps, his best known 
works. Iceland, its Songs and Sagas and 
Curious Myths of the Middle Ages may 
also be mentioned, and, among his novels, 
Mehalah, a Story of the Salt Marshes, The 
Broom Squire, and Miss Quillet. 

His secret of popularity lies not in his treat¬ 
ment, which is neither critical nor scientific, 
but rather in a clever, easy, diffuse, jovial, 
amusing way of saying clearly what at the mo¬ 
ment comes to him to say.—Warner’s World’s 
Best Literature. 

Mehalah is still one of the most powerful ro¬ 
mances of recent years.— J. M. Barrie. 

Barium, a metallic element closely re¬ 
lated to calcium, and hence to lime. The 
name was proposed by Davy. It is Greek, 
meaning heavy. It is doubtful whether 
barium has ever been seen in a pure state. 
It is variously described as silver-white, 
golden-yellow, and bronze. It is known 


i 


BARKIS—BARLEY 


to be ductile and malleable. Its specific 
gravity is about four, that is, it is about 
four times as heavy as water. A hydrate 
or combination of barium and water is 
manufactured at Niagara Falls. It is 
used in clearing sugar. Barium hydrate 
unites with lime readily. It is used to 
soften water, and thus prevent the forma¬ 
tion of lime incrustations on the inside of 
boilers. Barium is used in sizing paper 
and to adulterate the white lead used for 
painting. The spectroscope test for bari¬ 
um is a number of green lines. Barium 
salts are poisonous. See Chemistry. 

Barkis, bar'kis, Mr., a bashful carrier 
in Charles Dickens’ David Cop per field. 
He is remembered by his famous proposal 
of marriage to Peggotty, David’s nurse. 
He employs David as his messenger and 
makes known his intentions in the words, 
“Barkis is willin’.” See Dickens; David 

COPPERFIELD. 

Barley, a valuable kind of grass. There 
are about sixteen different species of wild 
barley scattered over the world. We have 
one kind in this country called “squirrel 
tail grass.” It is a waste-ground plant, 
so bearded as to be worthless in a pasture. 
Cultivated barley originated in Asia Mi¬ 
nor where its parent, a four-rowed species, 
still grows wild. Barley is the favorite 
food of the famous Arabian horses. It 
is mentioned frequently in the Scriptures—• 
“A measure of fine barley.” Barley was 
cultivated by the Romans. Specimens of 
barley have been found in the remains of 
the lake dwellers of Switzerland. A bar¬ 
leycorn is an old English measure, three 
barleycorns to the inch. John Barleycorn 
is the Scottish impersonation of a hilari¬ 
ous time. “Bold John Barleycorn’ has 
been immortalized by Burns. 

Owing to the short time required for 
its growth, barley ripens farther north 
than any other grain. It also has the pow¬ 
er of adapting itself to the hot climate 
of Arabia and the quick,, short summers 
of Finland and Iceland. It is raised in 
every European country, including Tur¬ 
key and its tributary states. The country 
about Edinburgh lavs claim to the finest 
barley in Europe. Barley is raised in the 
United States quite generally, but, by rea¬ 


son of its beard, it is so disagreeable to 
handle and the straw is so objectionable 
as fodder, that it is not a favorite crop. 
Transportation has been so cheapened that 
wheat flour is displacing barley meal in 
the north of Europe. Were it not that 
an immense quantity of bai 'ey is in de¬ 
mand for malt, it would become an un¬ 
important production. Pearl barley is 
ordinary barley hulled for table use. 


BARLEY CROP OF COUNTRIES NAMED. 


1919 

Country Bushels. 

United States . 165,719.000 

Canada . 58,336,000 

Chile . 3,977,000 

Belgium . 3,617,000 

France . 23,626,000 

Italy . 8,327,000 

Netherlands . 2,688,000 

Norway . 5,737,000 

Spain . 79,432,000 

Switzerland . 625,000 

Japan . 91,500,000 

Korea . 26,480,000 

Algeria . 33,667,000 

Tunis . 6,110,000 

New Zealand . 709,000 

Comparable totals, 14 countries.... 487,936,000 

Exports— Bushels. 

Algeria . 3,743,000 

Argentina . 218,000 

British India . 14,848,000 

Canada . 4.046.000 

China . 97.000 

Denmark . 357,000 

France . 12,000 

United Kingdom . 44,000 

United States. 18,805,000 

Imports— Bushels 

Argentina . 7,000 

Canada . 1,000 

Cuba . 273,000 

Denmark . 12,000 

France . 10.686,000 

Italy .. 7,510,000 

Switzerland . 605,000 

United Kingdom . 11,725,000 


UNITED STATES. 


State Bushels 

Maine . 168,000 

New Hampshire . 25.000 

Vermont . 420.000 

New York . 2,486.000 

Pennsylvania . 392.000 

Maryland . 198,000 

Virginia . 375,000 

Ohio . 3,150,000 

Indiana . 1,430,000 











































BARLEYCORN-BARN 


Illinois . 

Michigan ... 
Wisconsin .. 
Minnesota .. 

Iowa . 

Missouri ... 
N. Dakota .. 
S. Dakota , 
Nebraska ... 

Kansas . 

Kentucky ... 
Tennessee .. 

Texas . 

Oklahoma .. 
Montana ... 
Wyoming .. 
Colorado ... 
New Mexico 
Arizona 

Utah . 

Nevada .... 

Idaho . 

Washington . 

Oregon . 

California .. 


5,724,000 

5,320,000 

13,568,000 

18,200,000 

8.032,000 

330,000 

14,950,000 

19,250,000 

5,577,000 

16,200,000 

100,000 

176,000 

875,000 

1,500,000 

540,000 

525,000 

3.900,000 

680,000 

1,102,000 

720,000 

420,000 

3,360,000 

4,140.000 

1 . 886,000 

30,000 


United States . 165,719,000 

Barley is less liable to disease than 
other cereals, but it is sometimes attacked 
by rust and smut. Close smut may be 
prevented by soaking the seed for ten 
minutes in a solution of copper sulphate 
(bluestone), one pound to five gallons of 
water, or formalin, one pint to thirty 
gallons of water. See Beer; Cereals. 

See Beer ; Cereals. 

Barleycorn, Sir John, a humorous 
personification of malt liquor. The ex¬ 
pression is one of considerable antiquity. 
Various poets tried a hand at the ballad 
of Sir John. That by Burns is the best: 

There was three Kings into the east, 

Three Kings both great and high, 

And they hae sworn a solemn oath 
John Barleycorn should die. 

They took a plough and plough’d him down, 
Put clods upon his head, 

And they hae sworn a solemn oath 
John Barleycorn was dead. 

But the cheerfu* Spring came kindly on, 

And show’rs began to fall; 

John Barleycorn got up again, 

And sore surpris’d them all. 


John Barleycorn was a hero bold, 

Of noble enterprise, 

For if you do but taste his blood, 

’Twill make your courage rise. 

Barlow, Joel, an American poet and 
politician. He was born at Reading, Con¬ 


necticut, in 1755 and was graduated ai 
Yale College during the Revolutionary 
War. Barlow was a young soldier, a wit, 
a chaplain, an editor, a lawyer, an agent 
for a land company, a merchant, an Amer¬ 
ican consul at Algiers, and in 1811 minis¬ 
ter plenipotentiary to France. While seek¬ 
ing an interview with Napoleon in Poland, 
he died in a village near Cracow, 1812. 
His name appears among the early writers 
of American verse, as the author ©f the 
Columbiad. He wrote also a number of 
humorous poems. The most noted is Hasty 
Pudding from which we quote a few lines: 

I sing the sweets I know, the charms I feel. 

My morning incense and my evening meal— 

Ev’n in thy native regions, how I blush 

To hear the Pennsylvanians call thee Mush! 

Barmecide, bar'me-sid, a prince of 
Bagdad. He is the principal character in 
a story of the Arabian Nights. He called 
in a beggar and seated him at a bare ta¬ 
ble, on which he pretended that a sumptu¬ 
ous repast was laid out. Whether be¬ 
cause he fell in with the humor of the 
situation, or was afraid to do otherwise, 
the beggar pretended to partake of the va¬ 
rious viands, and praised their flavor. 
When the prince had enjoyed himself suf¬ 
ficiently at the beggar’s expense, he or¬ 
dered his servants to bring in a generous 
meal. One who loudly proclaims his lib¬ 
erality where no favor is conferred is 

called a barmecide. A barmecide feast is 

» 

an expressive term applied to a lot of fa¬ 
vors that exist only in the mind of the 
bestower. It is said that the great feasts 
given by the emperor of China to a vast 
number of guests are managed on some 
such plan. The emperor’s own table is 
loaded with genuine delicacies. Other ta¬ 
bles are decorated chiefly with papier-ma¬ 
che ducks, wooden chickens, wax fruits, 
highly colored water, etc., after the style 
of stage feasts. . All this is done by graft¬ 
ing officials desirous of profit. Should any 
be questioned by the emperor, etiquette 
requires him to bow low, hand on chest, 
saying, “Oh, Light of the Sun and Bright¬ 
est Orb of the Night, your slaves have 
feasted to satiety.” See Bagdad. 

Barn, in agriculture, a building for the 
shelter of forage and farm animals. Ill 































BARN 


England the term is restricted to a place 
of storage for hay, grain, flax, and other 
farm produce. The word itself is of Old 
English origin. It comes from here + ern 
and means barley storage. The barn 
may be regarded as the index of farm 
prosperity. Sheds of straw and sod sta¬ 
bles are well enough for a year or two, 
but a substantial barn is the ambition of 
every progressive farmer. Sightly, well 
kept barns go far to proclaim the prosper¬ 
ity of a community. There is an old say¬ 
ing to the effect that a small house and a 
large barn indicate thrift; a small barn 
and a large house are signs of a mortgage 
and that the farm will soon change hands. 

Very likely the first American barns 
were log affairs. The Canadian and New 
England barns of the nineteenth century 
were formed of massive hewn timbers, and 
were inclosed with boards and roofed with 
hemlock shakes and shingles. A barn rais¬ 
ing required the united strength of many 
men and was made the occasion of neigh¬ 
borhood jollifications. The growing scar¬ 
city of timber and the desire for greater 
ease in building led to the employment of 
skeleton frames of dimension stuff. These 
are known as balloon frames. The farther 
south the observer may go, the less severe 
the winters become, and the less substan¬ 
tial the barns are. In the southwest where 
hay cures on the stalk and cattle live un¬ 
sheltered all winter, the early settlers felt 
still less need for substantial barns. 

The typical American barn may be said 
to consist of a ground floor, used for the 
stabling of horses and cattle, and a loft 
for the storage of hay and other forage. 
A central aisle runs the length of the 
ground floor. Stalls are built along each 
side of this passage, so that the animals 
stand with their heads to the wall. A long 
manger is built in front of the animals, 
and each stall has a feed box. A huge 
loft door, often in the gable end, serves 
to admit hay, which is either pitched in by 
hand or is unloaded by a traveling hay 
fork. It would require volumes to describe 
the departure from this general type. 
Sheds, lean-tos, L’s, half underground 
basements, etc., may be found in infinite 

variety. 


The greatest advances have been made 
in barn sanitation. The dairy barn in par¬ 
ticular has been provided with a concrete 
floor that may be flushed; iron partitions, 
or better, no partitions at all, catch no dust 
and harbor no insects; mangers are dis¬ 
pensed with in the interest of cleanliness; 
a flood of light is admitted in remembrance 
that the cow is by nature an out-door aqi- 
mal, and that germs are killed by sunlight; 
and ventilation is provided. 

One of the most notable features of the 
later development of the dairy barn—a 
feature adopted with a view to cleanliness'' 
and to the animal’s health—is the giving 
of more room to each head of stock. Yet 
in order to give this space it is not essential 
that the barn be materially increased in 
dimensions, for the reason that the gal¬ 
vanized iron stanchions now used in place 
of the old wooden stalls do not require 
the room for their erection that the latter 
did, and for the further reason that barns 
are now built on such plans that a single 
aisle is very often used where two or even 
three were formerly used. In the circular 
barns now so often seen the silo occupies 
the central position, thus reducing the 
total time required for feeding; and this 
makes the feeding time of each individual 
animal simultaneous with all the others. 

Modern horse barns are, in general, 
built of heavier material than are dairy 
barns, because of the greater weight and 
activity of the animals to be housed. As 
in the case of the dairy barn, all possible 
sanitary precautions are taken, and as in 
the case of the former, concrete and metal 
have replaced wood in interior construc¬ 
tion. Box stalls have supplanted the old 
style stalls, and feed boxes and watering 
troughs are seldom permanently installed, 
as they retain moisture and are therefore 
potential disease breeders. The barn is 
usually of two, though sometimes of three, 
stories. The topmost of these contains feed 
storage space, harness rooms and, on large 
stock farms, light and roomy quarters for 
the stable attendants. 

On farms where usually the same barn 
houses both cattle and horses, the best fea¬ 
tures of the horse and cattle barns are 
combined. The modern tendency seems to 


BARNABAS—BARNARD 


be toward the circular type in these general 
farm barns. 

Barnabas, the surname given to Joseph 
by the Apostles. He was a Levite, and a 
native of Cyprus. Barnabas was a fellow- 
worker with Paul, and is, like Paul, classed 
as an Apostle. He journeyed with Paul 
through Asia Minor doing missionary 
work, and for a year he labored with him 
at Antioch. Contention arose between 
Paul and Barnabas after their return to 
Antioch from Jerusalem. Barnabas was 
out of harmony with Paul’s broader Gen¬ 
tile view of many religious matters, and 
they finally quarreled over the efficiency 
as a missionary of Mark, a nephew of 
Barnabas. Barnabas separated from Paul, 
taking Mark with him to their Cyprian 
home. The life of Barnabas after this 
separation is cloaked in obscurity. 

Barnaby Rudge, a novel by Charles 
Dickens, published in 1841. It is one of 
the two historical novels which Dickens 
attempted,—the other being A Tale of 
Two Cities. The story relates to the Gor¬ 
don Riots, or “No Popery Riots,” as they 
w T ere called, of 1780. Barnaby, a poor 
half-witted lad, becomes involved in these 
riots and is condemned to death, but is 
finally pardoned. The plot of Barnaby 
Rudge is unusually intricate. It has few 
side issues, and those that appear have a 
close relation with the main thread of the 
stor}^. Compared with Dickens’ other 
stories, it offers little opportunity for hu¬ 
mor and pathos. It is often regarded, 
therefore, as less characteristic than his 
other novels. The interest of the story, 
however, never flags. The gathering of the 
mob and the storming of Newgate are in¬ 
tensely dramatic; and in the character 
drawing Dickens is at his best. Barnaby, 
foolish and happy, with Grip, the raven, 
for his one close friend; Dolly Varden; 
Miss Miggs, and Hugh, the hostler, are 
vivid pictures. Gripi, it is interesting to 
note, is drawn from life. See Dickens. 

Barnacle, bar'na-kl, a degenerate marine 
animal. Barnacles are related closely to 
the crayfish, but in appearance they more 
nearly resemble the clam. In fact, natu¬ 
ralists formerly considered them mollusks. 
There are at least three classes of barna¬ 


cles. The common barnacle is known also 
as the ship barnacle and goose barnacle. 
The second kind is the acorn barnacle. 
The third class includes a number of small 
parasitic form®. 

The common barnacle has a peculiar life 
history. Larvae escape from the egg cases 
of the parent, and, after moulting several 
times, become very much like little water 
fleas. After a period of free swimming, 
the little “flea” settles down, head first, 
on some floating object to which it becomes 
firmly glued by a secretion from cement 
glands. As the body develops, it assumes 
a stalk-like form from two to several inches 
in length. The end of the body, the tail 
end, we should remember, secretes a sheF 
of five valves, giving the barnacle an ap¬ 
pearance not unlike that of a clam cling¬ 
ing to an object by a long foot. 

In modern phraseology, the term “barna¬ 
cle” has come to mean any thing or any 
one that hangs on, and thus becomes an 
impediment. A needless dependent of any 
sort, in fact, may be characterized in this 
way. 

Barnard, Edward Emerson (1857 - 

1923), an eminent American astronomer, 
was born at Nashville, Tennessee, and edu¬ 
cated at Vanderbilt University and at the 
University of the Pacific. In his boyhood, 
Dr. Barnard learned photography and be¬ 
gan his astronomical studies alone. He 
had advanced so far with his studies by 
1883 that he was given charge of the Van¬ 
derbilt Observatory, where he worked four 
years. From 1887 to 1895 he was astron¬ 
omer at the Lick Observatory, and from 
the latter year until his death Dr. Barnard 
was professor of practical astronomy at the 
University of Chicago, and astronomer at 
the Yerkes Observatory. In 1892 he dis¬ 
covered a fifth satellite of Jupiter; he dis¬ 
covered sixteen comets, and did much for 
the advancement of celestial photography. 
He received medals from numerous scien¬ 
tific bodies, and was given honorary mem¬ 
bership in others. One of his finest achieve¬ 
ments is his nearly completed atlas of the 
Milkv Wav. 

Barnard, Frederick A. P. (1809- 

1889), an American educator. He was a 
native of Sheffield, Massachusetts, and a 


BARNARD—BARNUM 


graduate of Yale College. From 1854 
until 1861 he was connected with the Uni¬ 
versity of Mississippi, but resigned at the 
breaking out of the Civil War. He was 
president of Columbia College, now Uni¬ 
versity, New York, 1864-88. Barnard 
College for women, an affiliated school of 
the university, was established in accord¬ 
ance with his plans and was named in his 
honor. 

Barnard, George Grey (1863- ), a 

distinguished American sculptor, was born 
at Bellefont, Pa. He studied at the Art 
Institute in Chicago, and later in Paris. 
He exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1894, 
and received gold medals at the Paris Ex¬ 
position of 1900, and at the Pan-American 
Exposition of 1901. His work is largely 
symbolic, and reveals a true originality of 
conception. Some of his better known 
works are Two Natures, Friendship, Maid¬ 
enhood, The God Pan, and The Hewers, 
illustrating Scandinavian mythology. 

Barnard, Henry (1811-1900), a dis¬ 
tinguished American educator. He was 
born at Hartford, Connecticut. In 1855 
he founded the American Journal of Edu¬ 
cation. He was president of the Univer¬ 
sity of Wisconsin 1856-9. He was the 
first United States Commissioner of Edu¬ 
cation, holding that position from 1867 
until 1870. He wrote several works of 
pedagogy, including Hints and Methods 
for Teachers, German Educational Re¬ 
formers, and a volume on Pestalozzi. His 
reports are a mine of information on edu¬ 
cational subjects. 

Barnburners, in American politics, a 
progressive section of the Democratic par¬ 
ty in New York. They were in reality bolt¬ 
ers, who were displeased by the election 
of President Polk in 1844'. They were 
represented as willing to destroy their par¬ 
ty in an effort to reform it. The nickname 
was given them in allusion to an anecdote 
then current of a Dutchman who set fire to 
his barn to clear it of rats. The Barnburn¬ 
ers favored canal construction and opposed 
the extension of slavery into new territory. 
Locally they supported the knot of polit¬ 
ical managers known as the “Albany Re¬ 
gency,” as opposed to the National De¬ 
mocracy controlled by the friends of James 


K. Polk. Among the leaders admired by 
the Barnburners were William L. Marcy, 
Silas Wright, Martin Van Buren, and 
John A. Dix. Later this wing of the De¬ 
mocracy was merged with the Free-Soil- 
ers. See Free Soil Party. 

Barnum, Phineas Taylor (1810- 
1891), an American showman. He was 
born in Bethel, and died at Bridgeport, 
Connecticut. His father was a tavern 
keeper. Phineas was fond of fun and of 
making money. From his Autobiography, 
we learn that he got his start in the world 
by keeping a country store. In connection 
with it he took advantage of a mania then 
prevalent, and opened up a lottery, with 
branches in neighboring villages. Later 
he paid $1,000 for a colored woman named 
Joice Heth, who claimed to be the nurse 
of George Washington. He exhibited her 
for a number of years, realizing as high 
as $1,500 a week. There is every evidence, 
as Barnum gleefully admitted, that she 
was thirty years younger than the child 
she claimed to have nursed. One of the 
principles laid down by Barnum in the 
account of his life is that the American 
people like to be humbugged, provided it 
be done in an agreeable way. 

Among other enterprises, Mr. Barnum 
discovered Charles Stratton, a remarkable 
dwarf of Bridgeport, Connecticut, known 
as General Tom Thumb. Barnum exhib¬ 
ited Stratton and his diminutive wife both 
in this country and abroad. Queen Vic¬ 
toria, it is said, was particularly delighted 
with the little couple. Barnum brought 
Jenny Lind to this country for her first 
series of concerts, the gross receipts of 
which amounted to $700,000. He exhib¬ 
ited the “Happy Family” of birds and 
animals. In 1871 he established “The 
Greatest Show on Earth,” the first great 
American combination of a traveling cir¬ 
cus and menagerie. Jumbo, a mammoth 
elephant, 11 feet 6 inches high, traveled 
with this show until killed by a railroad 
accident in Canada. After making all the 
money he cared for, Mr. Barnum settled 
down at Bridgeport, Connecticut, where 
he built himself a comfortable villa and 
divided his time between farming and writ¬ 
ing books, among others, The Humbugs 


BAROMETER—BARRIE 


of the World, a work which he was emi¬ 
nently qualified to prepare. 

See Circus. 

Barometer, a well known instrument 
for measuring the weight or downward 
pressure of the atmosphere. It was in¬ 
vented by Torricelli, an Italian physicist, 
in 1643. It consists of a hollow glass tube 
about thirty-four inches long, closed at 
one end, and filled with mercury. When 
full of mercury, the tube is inverted and 
the open end placed in an open cistern or 
small cup of mercury. The pressure of 
the atmosphere on the surface of the mer¬ 
cury in the cup prevents the mercury in the 
tube from running down and out. The 
greater the atmospheric pressure, the high¬ 
er the mercury stands in the tube. A change 
in the height of the mercury, or barometric 
column, as it is termed, denotes a corre¬ 
sponding change in the weight of the 
atmosphere. By a grading or marking on 
the tube, these changes may be observed 
readily. The standard height of the baro¬ 
metric column is 76 centimeters or 29.922 
inches, which is its average height at sea 
level in a latitude of 45°, with the tem¬ 
perature at 0° C. Barometers are used not 
only to detect changes of weather, but also 
to measure heights. The column falls at 
a very nearly uniform rate of one inch for 
every 900 feet of ascent. If the mercurial 
column is two inches shorter than the 
above standard, it is fair to argue that the 
observer is 1,800 feet above the sea. A 
more convenient instrument, but less trust¬ 
worthy than the mercurial barometer, is 
the aneroid barometer, consisting essential¬ 
ly of a cylindrical box with a flexible top. 
The air is partially exhausted from within. 
The top, or diaphram, rises and falls with 
change of atmospheric pressure. These 
movements are indicated by a needle and 
a dial. See Air ; Balloon ; Altitude ; 
Thermometer; Weather Bureau. 

Barr, Robert (1850-1912), a British 
author, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. 
For a time he was headmaster of the Cen¬ 
tral School Windsor, Canada; and in 1876 
he became a member of the staff of the 
Detroit Free Press, writing under the name 
of Luke Sharp. He removed to London 
in 1881, and in 1892 he, with Jerome K. 


Jerome, founded The Idler, a magazine 
which he edited until 1895. He is the 
author of A Woman Intervenes, The Face 
and the Mask, In a Steamer Chair, Count¬ 
ess Tekla , and numerous other works. 

Barras, Paul Francois Jean Nicholas 
(1755-1829), a French statesman and 
revolutionary leader, was born in Provence 
of a noble family. As a youth he served 
against the British in India. Though of 
noble birth Barras eagerly joined the 
Revolutionary party in 1789. He took a 
very active part in the storming of the 
Bastille and the Tuilleries. He voted for 
the death without delay of Louis XVI. 
Barras was elected to the presidency of the 
Convention in 1795, and while in office 
he aided in the overthrow of Robespierre 
and other leaders of the Reign of Terror. 
He made Napoleon the leader of the Army 
of Italy, and ruled with a high hand as 
long as the Directory was in charge of 
French affairs. But when the Directory 
was replaced by the Consulate, Napoleon 
seized the reins, forcing Barras out of 
power and out of Paris. He subsequently 
resided at Brussels, Marseilles, Rome and 
Montpellier, always under strict police sur¬ 
veillance. He returned to Paris only after 
the Restoration. His memoirs are invalu¬ 
able as a source of Revolutionary infor¬ 
mation. 

Barrel. See Cooper. 

Barrett, Lawrence (1838-1891), a 
noted American actor. He was a native of 
Paterson, New Jersey. In his professional 
career, Barrett was associated with Char¬ 
lotte Cushman, Edwin Booth, and other 
eminent actors. He was an admirer of 
Edwin Forrest. He acted in Philadelphia, 
Washington, New York, New Orleans, 
and the leading cities of the West. He 
was manager of an opera house in San 
Francisco. Among the characters person¬ 
ated with great ability were Othello, 
Richelieu, Hamlet, Shylock, Cassius, and 
King Lear. Through a number of tours 
he became known to a wide circle of play¬ 
goers. 

Barrie, James Matthew (I860-), a 

Scottish novelist, critic, and humorist. He 
was born at Kirriemuir, Forfarshire. He 
was graduated from Edinburgh University 


BARROW—BARTER 


in 1882, and engaged in journalism almost 
immediately. A Window in Thrums, pub¬ 
lished in 1889, was his first widely read 
book, although Better Dead, When a 
Man’s Single, and Auld Licht Idylls had 
all preceded it. Other writings are My 
Lady Nicotine, a Study in Smoke, The 
Little Minister, usually regarded as his 
best work, Sentimental Tommy, Margaret 
Ogilvie, The Little White Bird, and others. 
Most of his serious critical work has 
appeared in London newspapers and pe¬ 
riodicals. The Little Minister has been 
successfully dramatized. Mr. Barrie was 
offered knighthood by King Edward, but 
declined the honor. 

# For pathos fresh and unstrained; sympathy 
wide and human; pity tender and true, are the 
qualities which have made Barrie’s Window in 
Thrums and The Little Minister shake the hearts 
of the human family. . . . Never a drop of 

gall mingles in the genial cup of his mirth; his 
humor penetrates to the heart of things, but 
never to wound.—Elliot Henderson. 

Barrow, a heap of earth or stone raised 
over a place of burial. The earth tumulus 
of Greece, the stone cairn of Scotland, the 
Indian mound of America, and, indeed, 
the pyramids of Egypt, all belong to the 
same class of sepulchral monuments. Bar- 
rows are particularly numerous in Eng¬ 
land, and are classified according to their 
shape into round, long, conical, etc., bar- 
rows. When opened, the English barrows 
reveal the remains of the dead, frequently 
in rude stone chests, accompanied by arms 
and implements of the chase. The spear¬ 
heads, arrow points, and other implements 
belong to three distinct ages. The earliest 
are of flint and bone, the next of bronze, 
and the more recent of iron. The term 
barrow is to be associated with burg, berg, 
or burgh, a height or hill. It has no con¬ 
nection with bury, and none with barrow 
in wheelbarrow. 

Barry Cornwall. See Procter. 

Barrymore. Ethel, (1879- ), made 

her debut in a company headed by her 
uncle, John Drew, in 1896, and attracted 
general attention in 1900 for her work in 
Captain Jinks. After successes in Secret 
Service and Cynthia, she starred in A 
Doll’s House, and in Barrie’s Alice-Sit-by- 


the Fire, and her greatest success, Mid- 
Channel. In private life she is Mrs. Rus¬ 
sell Griswold Colt. 

Barrymore, John, (1882- ), brothei 

of Ethel Barrymore, made his debut in 
Magda, in 1903. He acted important 
roles in Miss Civilization , A Stubborn Cin¬ 
derella, The Fortune Hunter, and Hamlet . 
He played as leading man for the Famous 
Players Film Company. 

Barrymore, Lionel, brother of Ethel 
and John Barrymore, made his first pro¬ 
fessional appearance in 1893 in The 
Rivals. He has played also in Arizona, 
The Other Girl, Fires of Hate, Pantaloon, 
and enjoyed probably his greatest triumph 
as the star in The Claw and the Copper¬ 
head. He has also acted in motion 
pictures. 

Barrymore, Maurice (Herbert Blythe) 
(1847-1905), American actor, born in 
India, and died at Amityville, Long Island, 
and was educated at Cambridge. He was 
a born actor, and possessed unusual talent. 
Barrymore made his first appearance on 
the American stage in 1875, and until his 
death played chiefly in the United States, 
appearing as leading man with Olga Neth- 
ersole, Modjeska, Bernard Beere and Mrs. 
Langtry. He wrote several plays, the one 
best known being Nadjeska. 

Barter, the exchange of one kind of 
property for another without the use of 
money. The exchange of eggs for grocer¬ 
ies is barter. Swapping jacknives or trad¬ 
ing horses would hardly be called barter. 
Among primitive peoples, barter is the 
only form of exchange known. One who 
has a fish may give it to another in ex¬ 
change for fruit. In his travels Dr. Liv¬ 
ingstone speaks of a village tree on the 
branches of which the natives hung any 
article for which they had no immediate 
use. Each was at liberty to take away any 
article that he considered of equivalent 
value. John Smith bartered beads to the 
American Indians for corn. At the pres¬ 
ent time, barter is the only way of dealing 
with the natives of many parts , of Africa 
who have no use for money. The great 
fur companies of the northwest built up 
their business by a system of barter. Guns, 
ammunition, knives, ribbons, beads, looking 


BARTHOLDI—BARTON 


glasses, axes, and many other articles were 
transported at great expense to the trad¬ 
ing posts where they were bartered for 
furs. A gun had its price, not in money, 
but in so many beaver skins. Country 
stores still do a great deal of bartering. 
Traders among the American Indians ex¬ 
change goods for various roots, fruits, furs, 
oil, rice, and other articles brought in by 
the Indians for that purpose. 

A recent consular report speaks as fol¬ 
lows of barter of native products for man¬ 
ufactured goods in Liberia, Africa: 

Currency is absent from this section The 
natives bring their products—coffee, palm oil, 
palm kernels, palm wine, kasada, starch, piassa- 
va, ivory, skins, venison, camwood, rubber, bees¬ 
wax, honey, gold, precious stones, sheep, goats, 
cattle, ginger, kola nuts, and other things—and 
for these they get from the merchant cloth, salt, 
tobacco, pipes, gin, cutlasses, brass kettles, iron 
pots, trinkets, beads, handkerchiefs, powder, 
caps, shot, stockfish, looking glasses, combs, 
Florida water, and other commodities, all of 
which are bartered at large profit For instance, 
cloth purchased in England at 3 to 5 cents a 
yard is sold in trade for 24 cents. 

Bartholdi, bar-tol-de', Frederick Au¬ 
guste (1834-1904), a French sculptor. 
He was born in Alsace, April 2, 1834, and 
died in Paris, October 4, 1904. Well 
known as the designer of the colossal stat¬ 
ue of Liberty Enlightening the World in 
New York Harbor. Other statues by the 
same artist are the Lion of Belfort; La¬ 
fayette in Union Square, New York; and 
a bronze group of Lafayette and Washing¬ 
ton in Paris. See Liberty, Statue of. 

Bartholomew Fair, a famous fair held 
in Smithfield, London, 1133-1840. The 
fair opened on St. Bartholomew’s day, 
August 24, Old Style, and September 3, 
after the change in the calendar. It was 
held for fourteen days at first, but at the 
last the period was shortened to four days. 
It was the great cloth fair of the kingdom. 
The weavers from Flanders and at home 
brought their wares to Smithfield for sale. 
Acres of booths were filled with all sorts 
of goods, from which purchasers could 
make a choice. The fair was removed to 
Islington in 1840, and fifteen years later it 
came to an end. During the last century of 
its existence it became nothing but venders’ 


booths, and shows of all descriptions. 
Fairs were common throughout Europe. 
See Leipsic; Nijni-Novgorod ; Fair. 

Bartlett, Paul Wayland (1865- ), an 

American sculptor, was born at New 
Haven, Connecticut. When he was only 
14 years old he exhibited a bust of his 
grandmother at the Paris Salon. For his 
group, The Bear Tamer, he received hon¬ 
orable mention at the Salon in 1887. Mr. 
Bartlett’s best known works are The 
Ghost Dancer; his equestrian statue of 
Lafayette, presented to France by the 
school children of the United States and 
now in Paris; and his statues of Columbus 
and of Michelangelo, now in the Con¬ 
gressional Library at Washington. In 
1908, Mr. Bartlett was made a member of 
the Legion of Honor. 

Bartolommeo, Fra (1472-1517), the 
assumed name of Baccio della Porta, an 
Italian painter. He was born at Florence 
and studied there under Cosimo Roselli, 
and acquired a better knowledge of paint¬ 
ing by studying the works of Leonardo da 
Vinci. An admirer of Savonarola, he took 
the Dominican habit after the great re¬ 
former’s death, and for some years did no 
painting whatever; and afterward painted 
nothing but religious subjects. He was a 
master of coloring, and excels particularly 
in his handling of draperies. His master¬ 
piece is his Saint Mark; other important 
canvases are The Madonna with Six 
Saints, Betrothal of St. Catherine, and 
Salvator Mundi. 

Barton, Clara, the founder of the Red 
Cross Society in the United States. She 
was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, in 
1821. She was educated at home and at 
Clinton, New York. She opened the first 
public school at Bordentown, New Jersey, 
beginning with six pupils and closing with 
six hundred. Miss Barton obtained a 
clerkship in the United States natent office, 
and is said to have been the first woman 
clerk to draw a salary from a government 
department at Washington. During the 
Civil War she was active in hospital ser¬ 
vice. Near the close of the war she was 
employed by President Lincoln in tracing 
missing soldiers. After the war was over 
she gave war lectures. The Franco-Prus- 


BARTRAM—BASEBALL 


sian War drew her abroad, where she be¬ 
came identified with the International Red 
Cross Society of Geneva. On her return 
she organized the American Red Cross So¬ 
ciety, which later passed under control of 
the general government. Miss Barton took 
an active part in various women’s move¬ 
ments, being an earnest advocate of tem¬ 
perance, equal suffrage, and better social 
conditions for young women. She wrote 
History of the Red Cross in Peace and 
War. Her death occurred April 12, 1912. 

Bartram, John (1699-1777), a Quaker 
farmer. A native of Pennsylvania. Bar¬ 
tram became interested in botany after he 
was twenty-four years old. He correspond¬ 
ed with the eminent botanists of Eu¬ 
rope, to whom he was able to send many 
new plants to be named. Just imagine 
the interest with which he sent a new 
lady’s slipper, Cypripedium acaule Ait, to 
the Kew Garden. Linnaeus pronounced 
Bartram the greatest natural botanist in 
the world. He turned his grounds on the 
Schuylkill River into a botanic garden. 
Bartram’s garden, the first in America, 
with a stone house built with his own 
hands, is happily preserved in the park 
system of Philadelphia. Many of the trees 
have reached a gigantic size. 

Basalt, a dark, compact, finely grained, 
igneous rock. It is formed from lava by 
rapid cooling. It contains usually but lit¬ 
tle sand, potash, or soda; but is rich in 
lime, magnesia, and iron. When poured 
out into sheets, it is apt in cooling to 
take on what is known as a columnar or 
basaltic structure. The fluid mass cools 
into vertical, six-sided columns frequently 
of great regularity. The process is not 
essentially different from that which takes 
place when a mud flat dries and cracks in 
the sun, except that in the latter case reg¬ 
ularity is lacking. The columns of the 
Giants’ Causeway and of Fingal’s Cave are 
familiar examples of a basaltic structure. 
The cliffs of the Columbia are noted for 
basaltic columns, as are the Palisades of 
the Hudson. In California, basalt forms 
the bottom rock under the gravel in rivers 
where the largest gold nuggets are found. 
The table lands of New Mexico and Ari¬ 


zona owe their shape to columns of basalt 
See Lava; Volcano. 

Base, in chemistry, a compound formed 
by a metal and oxygen; also, sometimes, 
hydrogen. Certain other elements com¬ 
bined with oxygen and hydrogen, or with 
hydrogen alone, form acids. An acid and 
a base unite to form water and a salt. 
Thus sodium combines with oxygen and 
hydrogen to form a base known as sodium 
hydroxide; chlorine unites with hydrogen 
to form an acid known as hydrochloric 
acid. Both the base and the acid named 
are liquids. They may be combined to 
form common water and the white powder 
known as common salt. Acids are sour; 
bases are bitter, slimy to the touch, and 
corrosive; salts are soapy or salty to the 
taste. The chief base-forming metals are: 
aluminum, calcium, gold, iron, magnesi¬ 
um, mercury, platinum, potassium, silver, 
sodium, tin, and zinc. A base changes red 
litmus to blue. See Litmus ; Acid ; 
Salt; Alkali. 

Baseball, the American game of ball. 
It may have been developed from the Eng¬ 
lish game of “rounders” to which, how¬ 
ever, it bears little similarity. The game 
first took shape in New England and in 
the vicinity of New York and Philadel¬ 
phia. The Knickerbocker Club of New 
York, considered the parent ball club of 
the United States, was formed in 1845. 
Crowds of New Yorkers used to cross by 
the huge ferries to Hoboken to attend 
games between the Knickerbockers and ri¬ 
val organizations. 

During the Civil War baseball was a 
favorite form of amusement in camp. On 
the breaking up of the army, returning 
soldiers carried the game to every town 
and hamlet, and baseball seemed to spring 
up spontaneously everywhere. From 1865 
onward it has been recognized as a nation¬ 
al game. Rivalry between amateur clubs 
led to the employment of salaried players. 
Then came the organization of clubs into 
circles, in which each club goes around 
the circuit playing a series of games with 
its associate clubs. The National League, 
formed in 1876, now includes Brooklyn, 
Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, 
Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York. The 



Cannon-ball formation in Bavaria. Obsidian cliff, Yellowstone Park. 



Basaltic columns and balls, Prussian Rhine. 
BASALT AND OTHER ERUPTIVE ROCKS. 



















































































BASEDOW—BASEL 


American League, a rival organization dat¬ 
ing from a reorganization in 1900, in¬ 
cludes Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, 
Detroit, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, 
and Washington. The American Associa¬ 
tion is made up of St. Paul, Louisville, 
Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Kansas City, 
Columbus, Minneapolis, and Toledo. The 
Western League embraces St. Joseph, 
Tulsa, Wichita, Omaha, Sioux City, Okla¬ 
homa City, Denver, Des Moines. There are 
many other leagues as the Eastern, Cen¬ 
tral, Northern, Pacific, Southern. Indeed 
it is safe to say there are more ball clubs 
today than there are postoffices. The ex¬ 
penses of the large clubs are met by 
gate receipts. The Federal League made up 
of the cities of Brooklyn, Chicago, Pitts¬ 
burgh, St. Louis, Baltimore, Kansas City, 
Buffalo and Indianapolis, was a consider¬ 
able figure in baseball in 1914 and 1915, 
but was disbanded after two seasons. 

The various leagues are brought into 

conformity by the National Association of 
Leagues, under whose rules all games of 
prominence are now played. 

There is no better outdoor game for 
boys, and none better calculated to give 
strength, health, and activity, and none 
which furnishes more enjoyment to spec¬ 
tators. 

Indoor baseball is a form of baseball 
arranged originally for gymnasiums, but 
played frequently in the open air. The 
ball is larger than is used in the ordinary 
game, measuring usually about seventeen 
inches in circumference. The bat is smaller 
than the common bat and differs slightly 
in shape. The rules of the game are for¬ 
mulated by the National Indoor Baseball 
Association. 

Basedow, Johann Bernhard (1723- 

1790), a German author and educator. He 
was born at Hamburg. He died at Mag¬ 
deburg. Basedow was educated in the 
gymnasium of his native town. He stud¬ 
ied theology at Leipsic, but took up the 
work of tutoring young men. In 1767 
he published a work, the name of which 
may be given to show the length to which 
Germans of that day carried titles,— An 
Address to the Friends of Humanity, and 
io Persons in Power, on Schools, on Edu¬ 


cation, and its Influence on Public Happi¬ 
ness, with the Plan of a?i Elementary 
Treatise on Human Knowledge. It was 
Basedow’s ambition to establish a model 
school in which young teachers could be 
trained to carry his ideas abroad through¬ 
out Germany, the education of which he 
proposed to reform. In 1774 he published 
Elementary Work, an exposition of his 
ideas for the education of young children. 
The central thought was that children 
should be made to understand by seeing, 
hearing, feeling, and touching; or, to state 
the idea otherwise, to study things, and not 
mere words. A subscription enabled him 
to set up his model institute at Dessau. 
Basedow, however, had more temper than 
tact. He quarreled with his fellow teach¬ 
ers and left them to close up the institu¬ 
tion. His institute at Dessau, however, is 
regarded as having prepared the way for 
the German system of normal schools. 

Basel, ba'zel, an important manufactur¬ 
ing city of Switzerland, and the capital of 
Basel-Stadt. Basel is situated in the 
canton of Basel, in northern Switzerland, 
and its inhabitants use the German lan¬ 
guage. The French name is Bale, and 
Basle is an old spelling of the same word. 
Basel is a well built city, lying on both 
sides of the Rhine River, which is crossed 
here by three bridges, the Alte Briicke, 
dating from the thirteenth century. Gross- 
basel, or Great Basel, lies on the south 
bank, Kleinbasel, or Little Basel, on the 
north bank of the river. A Roman mili¬ 
tary post in the fourth century, six hundred 
years later a free city of the empire, almost 
destroyed by the earthquake of 1356, near¬ 
ly depopulated by a plague in 1444, a 
member of the Swiss Confederacy in 1501, 
and then coming to be one of the chief 
seats of the great movement known as the 
Reformation—Basel’s history has been 
long and eventful. Perils from without, 
especially during the Thirty Years* War, 
and rebellion from within on the part of 
peasants discontented with the government, 
kept Basel for many years in a disturbed 
state, but it continued to grow and flourish, 
and the dangers from without having 
ceased, internal peace was established 
finally in 1833 by the separation of the 


BASILICA—BASKET 


canton into two parts, Basel-Stadt and 
Basel-Land, which gave political rights to 
the rural districts. The old walls of Basel 
have been replaced by promenades, but 
some of the handsome medieval gates re¬ 
main, and the fine old Gothic cathedral 
begun in the eleventh century still stands. 
There is a great university founded in 
1459 and the city possesses a large public 
library, a valuable picture gallery, and a 
museum. Among its manufactures are 
silks, ribbons, gloves, linen, leather, jewel¬ 
ry, and paper. The famous “Baseler 
Leckerli” or Basel honeycakes are made 
here. In size Basel is second only to 
Zurich among the cities of Switzerland. 
Its population in 1920 was 135,976. See 
Switzerland ; Zurich. 

Basil'ica, in architecture, a Roman hall 
of justice. The name is derived from a 
hall in which the Greek basileus-archon 
heard cases involving religious disputes. 
The basilica became common throughout 
the Roman world shortly before the reign 
of Augustus. It was a huge oblong hall 
about three times as long as wide. The 
entrance was in one end. The opposite 
end was called the apse. It was semicir¬ 
cular in form. A raised floor or stage 
in the apse served as the tribune on which 
the judges sat on long semicircular bench¬ 
es. In order to support the roof, two rows 
of pillars ran from the apse to the front, 
dividing the main floor into a long, central 
nave, flanked on each side by a narrower 
aisle. Sometimes the architect set up a 
double row of columns on each side, mak¬ 
ing a double aisle. The nave was open 
clear to the roof. The nave of the early 
basilica was even without a roof. The 
aisles were surmounted by galleries for the 
accommodation of the public. Upon the 
introduction of Christianity, many basil¬ 
icas were used as churches. The earlier 
Christian churches were built in the form 
of basilicas. The tribune was replaced by 
an altar. The addition of transverse arms 
converted the oblong of the basilica into 
the cross of the cathedral. Many old Euro¬ 
pean edifices are halfway between basilicas 
and cathedrals. The Roman basilica is 
known chiefly by a study of ruins. Some 
of the more famous Christian basilicas 


may yet be seen at Rome, Treves, Ravenna, 
and elsewhere. See Cathedral; Archi¬ 
tecture. 

Basilisk, baz'i-lisk, the fabled, eight¬ 
legged, lizard-like king of dragons and 
serpents. It is now considered that the 
basilisk and the cockatrice were the same 
superstitious conception under different 
names. The cockatrice was produced from 
an egg laid by a very old cock and hatched 
by a toad. “It inhabited the deserts of 
Africa, and, indeed, could only inhabit a 
desert, for its breath burned up all vegeta¬ 
tion ; the flesh fell from the bones of any 
animal with which it came in contact, and 
its very look was fatal to life; but brave 
men could venture into cautious contest 
with it by the use of a mirror, which re¬ 
flected back its deadly glance upon itself.” 
The name has been applied by zoologists 
to a harmless hooded lizard of South 
America. 

Like as the Basiliske, of serpents seede, 

r rom powerful eyes close venim doth convay 

Into the lookers hart, and killeth farre away. 

—Spenser, Faerie Queene. 

Basket, a receptacle of open work 
woven of rushes, willow twigs, rattan, 
splints, or other flexible material. Bas¬ 
ket weaving seems to have been known tc 
the most primitive people. The rudest 
tribes practice the art. Remains of bas¬ 
kets have been found in the ancient lake 
dwellings of Switzerland. The earliest 
pottery was made by spreading clay on a 
basket as a frame. The basket burned 
out in baking, but left marks by which the 
process can be identified. The boat or 
coracle of the ancient Briton was made by 
covering a large basket with a hide. Mo¬ 
ses was set adrift among the bulrushes in 
a basket rendered water-tight with slimy 
clay. Fruit baskets of precious metals 
and costly filigree work were well known 
among the ancients. The roadsides in 
many parts of western Europe are devoted 
to the raising of osiers for basket making. 
It is difficult to draw the line between 
bags, baskets, boxes, and crates. Many 
baskets are made by combining wire and 
splints. Basket-making has become a 
large industry. The business of making 
baskets for the marketing of fruit has 


BASKET BALL—BASSWOOD 


grown into millions of dollars a year. See 
Pottery; Willow. 

Basket Ball, an American outdoor or 
gymnasium game. It was invented in 1891 
by James Naismith, a member of the 
Springfield, Massachusetts, Young Men’s 
Christian Association. It is played with 
a spherical, inflated ball, about ten inches 
in diameter. At either end of the hall or 
plot of ground, a hammock net is suspend¬ 
ed from a ring about eighteen inches in 
diameter at a height of ten feet from the 
ground. The players, who may be of 
either sex, are divided into two parties 
or teams. A regular team should consist 
of at least five members,—a center, two 
forwards, and two guards. It is consid¬ 
ered desirable that each team should wear 
a color by which its members can be dis¬ 
tinguished readily. The game consists in 
throwing the ball into these nets or goals. 
Each party has its goal into which its 
members try to throw the ball. The game 
is started by an umpire, who throws the 
ball into the air. It may be struck with 
the hand, caught, or thrown by any play¬ 
er, but must not be carried, nor must the 
player touch the ball while it is in the 
hands of another. When the ball falls, it 
belongs to the player who first picks it 
up. It is not allowable to shove or detain 
a player. A player’s progress may be bar¬ 
red by standing in the way. A throw 
may be obstructed by holding up of arms 
in front of the ball, or by springing up 
with outstretched arms. The game is an 
excellent one. 

Basques, basks, a peculiar people in¬ 
habiting the border provinces of France 
and Spain on the Bay of Biscay. The 
Basques are supposed to be a remnant of 
a primitive people once occupying France 
and Spain. Like the Welsh of Britain, 
they have persisted in the mountain fast¬ 
nesses of the Pyrenees. The Basque lan¬ 
guage, which is spoken by about 60,000 
people, is unlike any other known. “’Tis 
said the Basques understand one another; 
for my part I will never believe it,” said 
Scaliger. The Basques have preserved 
their own dress and customs. They are a 
simple, brave, independent people, culti¬ 
vating small farms at home, but fond of 


seafaring. They are said to have been 
the first Europeans to catch the whale. Bis¬ 
cay is another spelling for basque. The 
bay of that name is therefore the Bay 
of the Basques. The short-skirted jacket 
or basque is an article of national dress 
worn by the Basque women. 

Bass, a name used in a confused man¬ 
ner for unrelated fishes. The sea-bass is 
a perch, others are related to the sunfish. 
The striped bass, three to five feet long, is 
a fine, gamy sea-bass entering rivers from 
Nova Scotia to Florida to spawn. Its 
relative, the white bass, with an arched, 
greenish back and silvery sides, with sev¬ 
eral dusky streaks, is found in the waters 
of the upper Mississippi Valley to the 
Great Lakes. There is also a black, mot¬ 
tled sea-bass on the Atlantic coast. Un¬ 
related to these, and found in the waters 
of eastern North America from Canada 
to the Gulf, are the black basses. Of the 
smaller-mouthed species, a writer quoted 
by Jordan says: “The black bass is emi¬ 
nently an American fish; he has the facul¬ 
ty of asserting himself and of making 
himself completely at home wherever 
placed. He is plucky, game, brave, un¬ 
yielding to the last, when hooked. He 
has the arrowy rush and vigor of a trout, 
the untiring strength and bold leap of a 
salmon, while he has a system of fighting 
tactics peculiarly his own. I consider him, 
inch for inch, and pound for pound, the 
gamest fish that swims.” Ex-President 
Cleveland maintained that this bass is su¬ 
perior to the trout as a game fish. The 
large-mouthed black bass, or Oswego bass, 
known also as the green bass and bayou 
bass, is larger and is more sluggish than 
his fellow. The rock bass, a handsome 
fellow, closely related to the sunfish, is a 
favorite with young anglers. See Fish. 

Bassanio, bas-sa'ni-o, in Shakespeare’s 
comedy, Merchant of Venice, a Venetian 
gentleman, friend of Antonio. Nerissa 
speaks of him as “a scholar and a soldier.” 
These words describe the ideal man ot the 
time. Bassanio is Portia’s successful suit¬ 
or, although his part in the play in unim¬ 
portant. See Merchant of Venice. 

Basswood, or Linden, a well known 
softwood tree of the north temperate 


BASTILLE 


zone. The European linden is a favorite 
shade tree. Unter den Linden, the finest 
avenue in Berlin, took its name from the 
linden trees which were planted its entire 
length. The family name of Linnaeus, 
the eminent botanist, is derived from the 
linden. Linden is a more poetical name 
than basswood, and really more fitting to 
so fragrant and handsome a tree; but 
basswood, a word derived from the strong 
cord-like bast that forms the inner part 
of the bark, is the American name and 
will persist. Basswood grows quickly, and 
is a beautiful wood for carving and turn¬ 
ing. It has long been a favorite in Europe 
for wooden ware. The wood cuts admir¬ 
ably into thin sheets for fruit boxes, for 
which its freedom from taste and odor ren¬ 
der it desirable. The flowers are yellowish, 
and furnish pasturage for bees. “Bass¬ 
wood honey” is one of the finest honeys on 
the market. The fruit of the tree is a 
small nut-like body, borne in clusters at¬ 
tached to the midrib of a large bract. 
See Berlin. 

Bastien-Lepage, Jules (1848-1884), a 
French landscape painter. His original 
treatment of outdoor scenes, his realistic 
handling of light, and the unconventional 
poses of some of his subjects, marked him 
as the leader of a new school of painting. 
His Portrait of My Grandfather shows the 
subject in the unconventional act of taking 
snuff. Other noted portraits are those of 
Sarah Bernhardt, the Prince of Wales, and 
Andre Theuriet. He won several medals, 
and in 1879 was made a chevalier of the 
Legion of Honor. 

Bastille, a gate tower, an outlying de¬ 
fense, or citadel. The word appears to 
have meant originally to build. The term 
is used commonly in describing the castles 
of the Middle Ages. In French history, 
the name acquired the meaning of state 
prison. Many French cities had bastilles. 
The bastille of history is the Bastille of 
Paris. It formed a part of the medieval 
walls of Paris. It formed and defended 
the gate of St. Antoine. It was a mas¬ 
sive building and was preserved when the 
rest of the walls and fortifications were 
razed. It was used as a state prison by 
the French monarchs. The Bastille was be¬ 


gun in 1370. It consisted at first of two 
round towers 75 feet high, one on each side 
of the city gate. Afterward a tower was 
added on each side of these two, and 
massive walls, ten feet in thickness, 
strengthened by four more towers, were 
built within the city, so as to include a 
quadrangle or inner court 162 feet long 
and 72 feet wide. Louis XI ordered cages 
of iron constructed for the confinement of 
prisoners. There were vaults beneath the 
tower on a level with the waters in the 
moat. They were dark, musty, and in¬ 
fested with rats. They were dreaded by 
prisoners. When completed, the Bastille 
was a strong, stone castle, with massive 
walls, surmounted by eight gloomy towers. 
It could be entered only by a drawbridge 
crossing a deep moat. The entrance was 
defended at its inner extremity by stone 
gates. 

During the centuries preceding the Rev¬ 
olution, the French monarch exercised the 
arbitrary authority of ordering obnoxious 
persons imprisoned in the Bastille, where 
they remained sometimes the rest of 
their lives without trial or communication 
with the outside world. Any person who 
had the ill will of an intriguer at court, 
or who became dangerous by reason of his 
political influence, was likely to be whisked 
off and immured in the Bastille beyond 
all hope of rescue by friends or course of 
law. In this way the Bastille became a 
symbol of despotic authority. It was hated 
particularly by the friends of liberty and 
fair dealing everywhere. The Bastille 
stood in the artisan quarter of St. Antoine, 
the birthplace of the French Revolution. 
One of the first cries, when the mad popu¬ 
lace broke loose, was, “Down with the 
Bastille.” An infuriated mob, strength¬ 
ened by several companies of soldiers who 
sided with the people, attacked the castle 
and forced an entrance. The common sol¬ 
diers of the guard were spared, but the 
officials of the prison were taken from the 
military and were butchered. Seven per¬ 
sons were found in the dungeons. One 
had been there thirty years without sight 
of the outside world. Early in the cen- 
tury,. a prisoner had written on the walls 
of his cell, “The Bastille shall one day be 



BASUTOLAND—BAT 


demolished, and the people shall dance 
on the area where it stood,” and indeed 
they did. The Bastille was torn down to 
the last stone. 1 he material was used in 
building a bridge across the Seine. The 
former site is devoted to a public square 
called the Place de la Bastille, in the cen¬ 
ter of which rises a marble monument 154 
feet in height. The sides of the pedestal 
bear bronze medallions symbolical of jus¬ 
tice, the constitution, strength, and free¬ 
dom. 

The Bastille fell July 14, 1789. Soon 
after its destruction, Lafayette sent a 
model of the Bastille and a key to General 
Washington accompanied by the follow¬ 
ing: “Give me leave, my dear General, 
to present you with a picture of the Bas¬ 
tille just as it looked a few days after I 
ordered its demolition, w T ith the main key 
of the fortress of despotism. It is a gift 
which I owe as a son to my adopted father; 
as aid-de-camp to my general; as a son 
of liberty to its patriarch.” The model, 
which is two or three feet in length and 
about half as wide, and the wrought iron 
key, about seven inches in length, are kept 
safely at Mt. Vernon. See Lafayette; 
Paris. 

Basutoland, an important British grain 
growing and stock raising possession of 
South Africa. It has an area of 11,716 
square miles, and consists of an elevated 
but rugged plateau. It lies to the north¬ 
east of Cape of Good Hope Province, and 
is bounded by that province and by Natal 
and the Orange Free State. Basutoland 
is especially well watered and enjoys an 
equable climate. As a result, it is con¬ 
sidered the best grain growing district in 
South Africa, and produces excellent pas¬ 
turage for the Basutos’ large herds of 
cattle. 

Basutoland has been under direct con¬ 
trol of the British Crown since 1884. A 
native named Griffith who bears the title 
of Paramount Chief is the nominal ruler, 
but the British maintain here a Resident 
Commissioner. For purposes of adminis¬ 
tration the country is divided into seven 
districts. 

The population of Basutoland in 1921 
was 497,696 natives, 1,615 Europeans, and 


155 Indians. European settlement in the 
country is restricted to the few necessary 
traders, missionaries and government offi¬ 
cials. The capital is Maseru, and it is 
also the largest town, having a population 
of 2,319 natives and about 400 Europeans. 
The country is policed by about 300 na¬ 
tives under 25 white officers. 

Basutoland produces wheat, kaffir, corn, 
wool and coal. There were recently 
22,800 plows in the country, 86,600 horses, 
and 433,000 cattle. There were 400 na¬ 
tive elementary schools in 1920, with 
32,500 pupils enrolled. Normal and in¬ 
dustrial schools also add to the educational 
advantages offered the natives. 

The country has no navigable rivers and 
has only 16 miles of railroad, but there are 
good roads for wagon transport. Imports, 
amounting roughly to $5,000,000 in 1920, 
consisted chiefly of blankets, iron and tin 
ware, clothing, plows and foodstuffs; ex¬ 
ports, amounting in the same year to 
$4,500,000, consisted of live stock, wool 
and grain. 

Bat, a flying animal difficult to classify. 
Its nature is indicated pretty well by the 
old English name of “flittermouse.” The 
flying squirrel merely sails. The bat is 
the only mammal capable of genuine flight. 
The five toes of the hind foot, and the 
thumb of the front foot, or hand, are fur¬ 
nished with curved claws, by which it cus¬ 
tomarily hangs, head downward, from sup¬ 
ports when it rests. The scientific family 
name signifies wing-handed. The entire 
arm and the four greatly elongated fingers 
are connected by a thick membrane, which 
extends along the flank to the hind leg. A 
similar membrane runs from the heel to 
the tail in some species. These membranes, 
or wings, enable the bat to fly with a swift¬ 
ness and skill equal to that of the swallow. 
The membrane, which is more or less fur¬ 
ry, is furnished with delicate nerves which 
apparently enable the swift animal to tell 
almost instinctively, probably by the in¬ 
creasing density of the air, when it is ap¬ 
proaching an object that ought to be 
avoided. At all events, the bat can wheel 
and dart with perfect safety, and in ut¬ 
ter darkness, amidst rocks, trees, rafters, 
and obstructions against which it might 


BATAVIA—BATH 


be expected to dash itself. The bones of 
the hand being especially long, the fingers 
are frequently longer than the body. They 
cannot be doubled into the palm, like 
the fingers of a person’s hand. They 
simply close together and fold up the mem¬ 
branes like the ribs of a lady’s fan. Large 
folds of skin about the mouth, and ears of 
extraordinary size, are extremely sensitive, 
and it is thought that the bat, whose flight 
is absolutely noiseless, can hear slight 
noises of which a person would be wholly 
unaware. Bats vary greatly in size. The 
common bat is no longer than a mouse. 
Certain Asiatic species have a wing stretch 
of five feet. 

There are about 450 species of bats, 
divided into two main groups. The fruit 
eaters are confined chiefly to the tropics of 
the Old World. The insect eaters are dis¬ 
tributed throughout both continents. The 
bats of cold countries are usually dormant 
in winter. A large New England bat mi¬ 
grates southward in the fall. The little 
brown bat, abundant everywhere east of 
the Rocky Mountains, has a small, fox-like 
face with a high forehead, and pointed 
snout, large ears, and naked wings. It 
has small, weak teeth and is harmless. It 
hangs upside down in the daytime in hol¬ 
low trees, caves, and outbuildings, flitting 
at night about barnyards to catch mos¬ 
quitoes, gnats, and other insect pests. The 
bat takes no pains to make a nest. One or 
two young are produced at a time. When 
hunting food, the little ones often go with 
the mother, clinging to her neck, or else 
she hangs them by their hooks on the 
branch of a tree while she seeks their sup¬ 
per. It seems unnatural for a bat to walk, 
and yet it can make some progress by hitch¬ 
ing along, one side at a time, using its 
hind feet and the ends of its wings as 
best may be. 

The common bat has small, noticeable 
eyes, as black as a jet bead. The popular 
saying, “as blind as a bat,” is founded 
on accurate observation. The eyes of bats 
have been found to be imperfect in that the 
portion of the retina which is most con¬ 
cerned with perception of light is not well 
developed. As if to compensate for this, 
we find, in some species, the outer ear, in 


others the skin around the nostrils or on 
the lips and chin, developed into large out¬ 
growths in which are many delicate nerves. 
One bat that lives in Europe has such long 
ears that they must be folded under the 
bat’s arm while it sleeps. In another Eu¬ 
ropean bat, the skin grows out on the nose 
like a leaf in shape. By means of these 
outgrowths, a bat entirely blind, if let loose 
in a room in which numerous strings have 
been stretched, will fly about without 
touching one. 

The flying foxes or fox-bats of India 
and Madagascar are the largest bats 
known. Allied to them is an African spe¬ 
cies which frequents the interior of the 
pyramids and dark ruins in Egypt. 

Batavia, the capital and seaport of 
the Dutch East Indies. It is situated on 
the north coast of Java, in the latitude of 
6° 8' S. The harbor is deep, picturesque, 
and safe. Ships anchor within the shelter 
of numerous islets. The business portion 
of the city is low, being built on a marsh 
by the sea. The quarters for the Dutch 
soldiers, offices for officials, and the dwell¬ 
ings of the wealthier merchants are in an 
elevated suburb which is very modern, 
possessing water works, electric street 
railways, electric lights and telephones. 
Batavia has long been the seat of Dutch 
commerce in the east. It was founded by 
them in 1619. The products of the Dutch 
East Indies are collected at Batavia for 
shipment, chiefly to Amsterdam and Rot¬ 
terdam. The warehouses are piled high 
with rice, sugar, tea, indigo, quinine, to¬ 
bacco, spices, Java coffee, and other East 
Indian products. The merchants import 
cotton goods and implements for distribu¬ 
tion to plantations far and near. The Ba¬ 
tavian trade is one of the chief sources of 
Dutch commercial prosperity. Steamer 
landings average fifteen a day. The popu¬ 
lation of Batavia in 1918 was 234,697, in¬ 
cluding about 9,000 Europeans, 28,000 
Chinese, and 2,000 Arabs. 

Bath, a city of England. It is pic¬ 
turesquely situated in Somersetshire on the 
Avon, about due west from London and 
not over twenty miles from Bristol. There 
are famous saline and chalybeate hot 
springs. During the Roman occupancy of 


Lid-nosed, long-tailed bat of Egypt. 




Bat with horse-shoe nose, Europe and Asia, 


Vampire. 


Head of vampire, 


Vertical cross-section of wing membrane of European vespei 

bat, magnified 6u0 times. 


BATS, 



















































BATH—BATON ROUGE 


the island, the springs were known from 
their high temperature as Aquae Solis , wa¬ 
ters of the sun. The Romans erected mag¬ 
nificent baths here. Five halls yet re¬ 
main. The largest is 68 by 110 feet. 
They were heated by a system of flues be¬ 
neath the floor. One of the tanks is lined 
with lead. The Roman watering place 
was destroyed by the Saxons. The Bath 
was rebuilt during the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. Under the leader¬ 
ship of Beau Nash it became the most 
fashionable watering place in England. 
Bath is now a modern city of 69,519 peo¬ 
ple. There is a fine abbey church in the 
“perpendicular” style of architecture. 
Large windows of rich tracery are set so 
close together that the edifice is called the 
“Lantern of England.” Bath does not 
maintain its former reputation for fashion, 
but it is still the resort of invalids. The 
principal springs, four in number, supply 
over 7,000 gallons of water an hour. The 
temperature of the water is from 108° 
to 117° F. 

Bath, a name applied to the washing 
of the body or to facilities for doing so. 
Among primitive peoples, no arrangement 
is made for bathing, not even for washing 
the face, except as the native may plunge 
into natural bodies of water. The South 
Sea Islanders are said to be fond of 
bathing in the surf. Their children take 
to the water like young seals. As civiliza¬ 
tion advances, especially in warm countries, 
the bath has been recognized as a neces¬ 
sary part of household arrangements. 

Public baths were constructed by the 
Greeks and Romans on a magnificent scale. 
Maecenas, Agrippa, Agricola, Diocletian, 
and Titus provided Rome with bath 
houses, the remains of which still arouse 
admiration. Water for the Roman bath 
house was brought from the Apennines 
through aqueducts. In some of these baths 
2,000 to 3,000 persons could bathe at one 
time. Wherever the Roman arms ex¬ 
tended, in Africa, in the East, throughout 
western Europe, and even in England, ex¬ 
tensive baths were built. The famous 
watering places of Europe were first made 
known by bath houses built during the 
period of Roman occupancy. 


On the principle that “cleanliness is 
next to godliness,” modern cities are be¬ 
ginning to pay attention to public baths. 
Liverpool, London, Pittsburg, Newark, 
Boston, and other cities deserve mention. 

The cold, the tepid, and the warm bath 
are so named from the temperature of the 
water used. The cold bath should be 
used in the morning, as otherwise the 
bather is apt to catch cold. The most 
celebrated bath is the Turkish bath, al¬ 
though the Turks were not the first, by any 
means, to use it. A genuine Turkish 
bath requires the use of at least three 
rooms. The first should have a tempera¬ 
ture ranging from 115° to 120°, the sec¬ 
ond from 120° to 140°, with a third rang¬ 
ing from 150° to 175°, or even as high as 
200°. The bather stays from five to fifteen 
minutes in the hottest room, then for an 
equal length of time in the next, and cools 
off in the third room while an attendant 
rubs his skin and works his muscles. The 
loss of weight from perspiration is quite 
noticeable. 

The Russian bath is a vapor bath. This 
may be taken by wrapping the body in a 
heavy blanket and sitting in a chair over 
boiling hot water, the temperature of which 
may be maintained by the immersion of 
red hot bricks. 

Bathometer, an instrument for meas¬ 
uring depths, especially of sea water. One 
kind is a peculiar, self-registering spring 
balance. It is difficult to ascertain the 
depth of the ocean. This instrument is 
based on the density of sea water at vary¬ 
ing depths. The deeper the water, the 
greater its density and the greater its 
buoyancy. A stone weighs less—comes 
nearer floating—in deep water than in 
shallow water. The operator takes the 
weight of a sinker just beneath the surface 
of the sea, and again after the apparatus 
has been lowered by a cord into the sea. 
As stated, the index of the balance regis¬ 
ters the -weight. A comparison of the two 
results is made. The difference in buoy¬ 
ancy gives the difference in density and 
enables the scientist to compute the depth. 

Baton Rouge, bat'un roozh, the capital 
of Louisiana. It is situated on the eas^ rj i 
bank of the Mississippi and is eighty mile 






BATTENBERG—BATTERY 


northwest of New Orleans. Baton Rouge 
was one of the early French settlements 
in Louisiana, and has still many quaint old 
French and Spanish houses. These with 
its situation on a bluff above the river give 
it a picturesque appearance. 

Five railroads run through the city. 
The manufactures include brick, lumber, 
cotton goods, sugar, rice and petroleum 
products. The State University and Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station are located 
here. Population, 1920, 21,782. 

Battenberg, bat'ten-berg, a small Prus¬ 
sian town which has given its name to a 
grand ducal family of Hesse. Alexander, 
Prince of Hesse, married the Countess von 
Hauke. The marriage was morganatic, 
that is, it was stipulated that neither the 
wife nor children should inherit the title or 
possessions of the husband. In 1857, how¬ 
ever, the title of Countess of Battenberg 
was conferred upon Prince Alexander’s 
wife, and her sons, therefore, became 
Princes of Battenberg. Prince Henry of 
Battenberg married Princess Beatrice, 
daughter of Queen Victoria, and theii 
daughter is Princess Victoria Eugenie, or, 
as she is called frequently, Princess Ena, 
wife of Alfonso XIII of Spain. 

Battering Ram, a device for hammer¬ 
ing down the walls of cities. Before the 
invention of gunpowder, the chief defense 
of a city consisted in a high wall, with en¬ 
trances defended by massive gates. The 
battering ram employed by the ancients for 
hammering down these walls was of two 
sorts. The chief feature of the first was 
a huge beam swung by cables in a frame. 
The end of the beam was shod frequently 
with an iron head, and the frame in which 
\t swung was provided with a roof to pro¬ 
tect the operators from a shower of stones 
and javelins from the top of the wall 
above. A number of men applying their 
strength to the beam caused it to swing 
to and fro in such a way that one end 
struck the wall with tremendous force. 
The other sort was operated on rollers. 
The force of the battering ram depended, 
of course, on the weight of the beam and 
Jie force with which it was propelled. 
Rams, employed by the Romans at the 
siege of Carthage- were so la^ge that a 


hundred men were required for their oper¬ 
ation. A Roman writer describes one that 
must have weighed over twenty tons. 
Those in charge are said to have made a 
study of striking the wall at the right 
moment, so that the force of the blow 
might be added to the natural vibrations 
of the wall, just as a boy learns to push 
a swing. The frame of a ram was moved 
to and fro on rollers. 

Battery, a combination of voltaic or 
galvanic cells. The cell is a device for 
changing chemical energy into electrical, 
which in its simplest form consists of two 
metals immersed in an electrolyte. Strips 
of copper and zinc will serve the purpose. 
One metal is acted upon more strongly by 
the acid than the other, which gives rise to 
an electrical pressure, so that when the 
metals are joined by a conductor, a current 
will flow between them. To increase the 
effect the cells are often joined, either with 
unlike poles connected, when they are said 
to be joined in series; or with all like poles 
connected, spoken of as in parallel. The 
former is used when the external resistance 
is high and the latter when low. A com¬ 
bination of the two methods is often em¬ 
ployed when a maximum current is de¬ 
sired. 

Quite distinct from this, known as the 
primary cell, is the secondary or storage 
battery, also called an accumulator. In 
this, the difference in the electrical condi¬ 
tion of the plates is produced by sending 
a current through from some outside 
source. The energy of this charging cur¬ 
rent is thus stored up in the form of energy 
of chemical combination. When this 
charging has continued a sufficient length 
of time, the cell may be removed and used 
as a primary cell. Its advantage over the 
primary cell lies in its greater rate of dis¬ 
charge due to a higher electrical pressure 
and a lower internal resistance. The actu¬ 
al quantity of electricity obtained is no 
more than was utilized in charging, is in 
fact, slightly less. 

The storage battery as used today was 
originated by Gaston Plante, a Frenchman, 
in -1859. In improved forms it is of great 
value for a variety of purposes. On auto¬ 
mobiles with an electric starter it is used 


BATTERY—BATTLE OF THE KEGS 


to store energy for cranking the engine, 
lighting the lamps, and supplying sparks 
for the ignition system. It supplies the 
current required for telephoning, propels 
mine locomotives and electric tractors, 
swings draw-bridges, and is the source of 
power in electric automobiles. Naval guns 
are fired by the current from storage bat¬ 
teries, and in the power and lighting sta¬ 
tions of our cities there are storage batter¬ 
ies as big as a house for use in emergencies. 

Battery, The, a park of twenty-one 
acres at the southernmost point of the is¬ 
land of Manhattan. It was formerly the 
site of a Dutch fort. Early prints show 
that it was surrounded by a large number 
of aristocratic Dutch residences, some of 
which may still be seen. Castle Garden, 
a little island a few feet off shore, at one 
time occupied by a fortification, and up to 
1890 used as reception quarters for steer¬ 
age immigrants, has been united with the 
Battery by a filling of earth, and now 
forms a part of a public park. The new 
quarters are now devoted to the purposes 
of a public aquarium and museum. The 
Battery is a sightly, attractive spot of in¬ 
terest even apart from its historical asso¬ 
ciations. See New York City; Central 
Park. 

Batting, raw cotton, or wool, carded 
into thick sheets or laps, used for bed-com¬ 
forts, mattresses, and various domestic pur¬ 
poses. Cotton is put up usually in one 
pound rolls. Wool is often carded in 
sheets sufficiently large for a bed comfort, 
a layer of thin cheesecloth being tacked 
lightly to either side to hold the wool in 
place and prevent matting. Finely carded 
cotton batting is sterilized and put up in 
convenient packages for surgical uses. See 
Carding. 

Battle Above the Clouds, a battle of 
the Civil War. The reference is to the 
storming of Lookout Mountain March 24, 
1863. It was part of the general battle of 
Chattanooga. The Federals, under “Fight¬ 
ing Joe” Hooker, advanced up the northern 
slope of the mountain. All day the mists 
hid the valley below; and in the afternoon 
the clouds settled down so thick that the 
rattle of artillery ceased an hour for very 
darKness. Hence the name of “Battle 
Above the Clouds.” 


Battle Creek, Mich., is situated on the 
Kalamazoo River at its confluence with 
Battle Creek. This city is the home of 
the famous Battle Creek Sanitarium, which 
was established in 1866, where dietetic ex¬ 
periments are conducted. The city is a 
trading center for the rich agricultural and 
fruit growing district surrounding it. Here 
are located extensive car and locomotive 
repair shops of the Grand Trunk Rail¬ 
road. Besides breakfast foods, important 
manufactures are threshing machines and 
other agricultural implements, flour, boil¬ 
ers, engines and pumps, and paper boxes. 
Population, in 1920, 36,164. 

Battle of the Books, a satirical work 
by Jonathan Swift, written in 1697, and 
printed seven years later. It was written 
when the controversy as to the relative 
merits of ancient and modern literature 
was at its height. The Battle of the Books 
represents a contest between the classic and 
modern books in the king’s library. It is 
clever and witty, sneering at the shams of 
pedantry. It was written to uphold the 
views of Sir William Temple, and is full 
of spite. For this reason it loses much of 
its value as an authority. See Swift. 

Battle of the Frogs and Mice, an an¬ 
cient Greek mock-epic. It is known by 
its Greek name, Batrachomyomachia, bat- 
ra-kd-ml-o-ma'ki-a. Its authorship is 
unknown. The plot is witty. A mouse, 
having escaped from a cat, is urged by 
a frog to visit his home. At the first sign 
of danger the frog plumps into a pool. 
The deserted mouse soliloquizes after the 
manner of an epic hero and dies. The 
mice hear of the affair and wage war on 
the frogs. The battle is a parody on 
Homer’s Iliad. The gods are brought in, 
the deliberations of Zeus and Athena being 
very clever. The mice win the victory 
but are put to flight by an army of crabs, 
who appear to aid the frogs. 

Battle of the Kegs, a mock heroic 
poem by Francis Hopkinson. During the 
winter of 1777-8 the British army under 
General Howe made Philadelphia winter 
headquarters. The Americans made a few 
torpedoes out of kegs and sent them down 
the Delaware in hopes of annoying the 
British shipping. One keg seems to have 
exploded in the hands of some curious 


BATTLE OF THE NATIONS—BAUCIS 


boys, maiming one of them. The British 
gunners occupied themselves in firing at 
other kegs that appeared with the tide a 
few days afterward, but the incident at¬ 
tracted no particular attention until Fran¬ 
cis Hopkinson got hold of it and wrote a 
poem to the tune of Maggy Lander, in 
which he described the alarm created by 
the kegs, and heroism displayed by the 
British in the terrific attack made on the 
kegs. The song served to keep up the 
spirits of the colonists. 

Battle of the Nations, the third bat¬ 
tle of Leipsic, October 16-18, 1813. A 
combined force of 300,000 Austrians, Rus¬ 
sians, Swedes, and Prussians defeated Na¬ 
poleon’s army of 180,000. The French 
loss was 40,000 killed and wounded, and 
30,000 taken prisoner. The loss of the 
allied forces was about 54,000 killed and 
wounded. 

Battle of the Three Emperors. See 

Austerlitz. 

Battleship, in modern warfare, a heavy, 
armor-plated warship. The history of 
the battleship may be traced step by step 
from the old two or three-decked w T ooden 
galley propelled by benches of oarsmen. 
The Greeks and the Romans protected the 
sides of their galleys with heavy hides. The 
Normans and Saracens used blankets of 
heavy, thick felt for the purpose. Pro¬ 
tective plates of lead were used as early 
as the middle of the twelfth century. 
Richard the Lion Hearted captured a ship 
of this description from the Saracens in 
1191. In 1585 the citizens of Antwerp 
constructed a large, flat bottomed ironclad, 
with a view to raising the siege of their 
city. They built the walls of their ship of 
thick timbers and plated it with iron. In 
high hopes, they christened it “The End 
of the War.” When they sailed forth, how¬ 
ever, to break through the lines of the ene¬ 
my, it ran aground and fell an easy cap¬ 
ture. In derision the name was changed 
to “Wasted Money.” As early as 1600, the 
Japanese clad their fighting ships with 
plates of iron and copper. As early as the 
eighteenth century, the English hung cur¬ 
tains of rope over the sides of their fight¬ 
ing ships 


Ironclads were used to some extent dur¬ 
ing the Crimean War. The use of the 
armor-plated ship in modern warfare, how¬ 
ever, dates, with American writers, at 
least, from the famous conflict of the 
Monitor and the Merrimac in 1862. The 
modern warship contains almost no wood 
at all. Frame, floor, and walls are built 
of steel. To be considered a battleship of 
the first grade, a craft must carry heavy 
guns, be protected with thick armor, and 
have a reasonable degree of speed. 

One of the largest battleships of recent 
years was the British super-dreadnaught, 
Audacious, wrecked off the north coast of 
Ireland, late in October, 1914, by a mine. 
This war engine was of 27,500 tons dis¬ 
placement ; its main armament consisted of 
ten 13.5 inch guns; it carried three torpedo 
tubes. The horsepower of the engines was 
31,000 and its speed 21 knots. 

Two new United States dreadnaughts, 
the Colorado and the West Virginia, are 
nearing completion. Each has a displace¬ 
ment of 32,600 tons, a speed of 21 knots, 
and carries eight 16 inch and fourteen 5 
inch guns and two 21 inch torpedo tubes. 
On November 1, 1922, the most important 
fighting ships that the United States had 
in commission were 17 dreadnaughts; 10 
armored cruisers; 2 cruisers, first line; 4 
cruisers, second line; 10 light cruisers, 
first line; 2 aircraft carriers; 2 mine lay¬ 
ers; 102 destrovers, first line; and 94 sub¬ 
marines, first line. See Armor Plate ; 
Navy; Convention on Limitation of 
Armament. 

Baucis and Philemon, ba'sis, fi-le'- 
mun, in Greek legend, an aged couple of 
Phrygia. The story runs that Zeus and 
Hermes were once traveling in disguise 
through the country. In their weariness 
they sought rest and refreshment, but were 
turned from every door until they reached 
Philemon’s cottage. He received the stran¬ 
gers hospitably, while Baucis prepared the 
very best meal her poverty permitted. 
When the repast was ended the visitors 
disclosed tneir identity. They punished 
the inhospitable people by sinking the 
entire country until only a lake was 
to be seen. Philemon’s cottage, how¬ 
ever, remained standing, but was changed 


BAUXITE—BAVARIA 


into a beautiful temple, of which he and 
his wife were appointed keepers. Then 
the gods offered to grant any request the 
old people might make. After consulting 
together, Baucis and Philemon requested 
only that they might die, as they had lived, 
together. The request was granted. They 
lived to be very old and then were changed 
at the same moment into two trees stand¬ 
ing before the door of the temple. 

The Roman Ovid has written a poem 
entitled Baucis and Philemon of which 
Dryden has made a translation. Goethe 
also wrote a poem having the same title. 
Swift has treated the subject in burlesque 
style, representing the cottage as changed 
into a church, of which Philemon be¬ 
comes parson. 

The groaning chair began to crawl, 

Like a huge snail, along the wall: 

There stuck aloft in public view, 

And, with small change, a pulpit grew, 

A bedstead of the antique mode, 

Compact of timber many a load, 

Such as our ancestors did use. 

Was metamorphosed into pews, 

Which still their ancient nature keep 
By lodging folks disposed to sleep. 

The names of Baucis and Philemon are 
of frequent occurrence, in literature and 
conversation, to designate loving and 
faithful married people. 

Bauxite. See Aluminum. 

Bavaria, ba-va'ri-a, once a kingdom of 
the German Empire, now a part of the Re¬ 
public of Germany. In addition to Bava¬ 
ria proper, the kingdom included a dis¬ 
tant, detached province, county we would 
call it, situated on the west bank of the 
Rhine opposite Baden. The area of Ba¬ 
varia is 30,562 square miles, about equal 
to that of Maine. The population, how¬ 
ever, about 7,140,340, is about nine times 
as great, or 233.8 to the square mile. 
The births exceed the deaths, however, 
to a very great extent. Seven-tenths 
of the people are Catholics. The rest 
belong to various denominations. Educa¬ 
tion is compulsory up to fourteen years of 
age. A few square miles in the northeast¬ 
ern part lie in the basin of the Baltic; the 
Rhine and its tributary, the Main, drain 
other portions; but by far the greater part 
of Bavaria is drained through the Danube 
into the Black Sea. The general surface 


of the country is broken. The hills and 
mountains are composed chiefly of disinte¬ 
grating limestone. The valleys and slopes 
are accordingly of great fertility. One 
half of the country is under the plow; 
one-third is covered with forests of pine 
and fir, and the remaining sixth is de¬ 
voted to meadows and pasturage. The 
chief crops are wheat, rye, barley, oats, 
potatoes, millet, hemp, flax, madder, and 
hops. Grapes are raised on Lake Con¬ 
stance and in the valley of the Main. 
Cheese and other dairy products are an 
important source of revenue. A large 
amount of timber is cut annually. A very 
great number of small manufacturing es¬ 
tablishments are spread all over the coun¬ 
try, devoted chiefly, however, to supplying 
local markets. One of the chief industries 
is that of brewing. There are a great many 
breweries, which, according to recent 
statistics, produced the enormous quantity 
of 163,235,116 gallons of beer in 1919. 

The constitution under which it is gov¬ 
erned was adopted late in 1919. This 
constitution abolishes all privileges arising 
out of birth or caste, and vests the people 
with supreme power. Suffrage is universal. 
The Church is separated from the State, 
and all religious associations have equal 
rights. 

Education is free, and compulsory from 
the ages of six to sixteen. Bavaria has 
three universities, one each at Munich, 
Wurzburg and Erlangen. Technical and 
special schools are numerous; and Bavaria 
has a world reputation for the fineness of 
its art schools. 

Statistics. The following are the 
latest reliable statistics available: 


Land area, square miles. 30,562 

Water area, square miles. 257 

Forest area, square miles. 10,150 

Population (1919) . 7,140,340 

Munich . 630,711 

Nuremberg . 352,675 

Augsburg . 154,555 

Ludwigshafen . 90,721 

Wurzburg . 86,571 

Number of divisions . 9 

Members of Diet . 158 

State revenue .$479,269,000 

Bonded indebtedness .$547,241,000 

Farm area, acres. 5,000,000 

Wheat, bushels . 25,267,000 

Rye, bushels . 33,700,000 

Oats, bushels . 38,000,000 

Potatoes, bushels . 115,000,000 





















BAYARD—BAYEUX TAPESTRY 


Domestic Animals— 

Horses . 365,026 

Cattle . 3,667,244 

Sheep . 741,483 

Swine . 1,740,703 

Goats . 431,691 

Output of wine, gallons. 18,252,662 

Output of beer, gallons. 163,235,116 

Output of alcohol, gallons. 2,609,598 

Coal mined, tons . 2,890,000 

Iron ore mined, tons. 415,000 

Output of pig iron, tons. 175,900 

Output of cast-iron ware, tons. 156,900 

Output of sulphuric acid, tons. 33,400 

Miles of railway. 5,300 

Teachers in public schools. 22,104 

Pupils enrolled. 1,091.345 


Bayard, ba'ard, Chevalier de (1475- 
1524), a French soldier. He came of 
good family, and was noted for his hand¬ 
some bearing, pleasant manners, and skill 
in the tilt yard. He wore, of course, the 
complete armor of the day, and won great 
renown in various feats at arms. At one 
time he guarded ,a bridge against 200 
Spaniards until the French army could se¬ 
cure a more advantageous position. Dur¬ 
ing the war between Francis I and Charles 
V, he held a town with 1,000 men against 
an army of 35,000 for six weeks, and 
saved France from invasion. He was at 
one time taken prisoner by the Italians and 
again by the English; but was set free 
without ransom, so great was his reputa¬ 
tion for valor and humanity. Chivalry 
and knighthood are surrounded by no lit¬ 
tle glamor. Bayard is considered an ideal 
knight, the typfe of what all knights should 
have been. He was slain in an expe¬ 
dition sent against Italy. His body was 
brought home and interred at Grenoble. 
He is spoken of in the annals of his 
country as “Le chevalier sans pear et sans 
reproche,” a knight without fear and above 
reproach. 

Bayard, Thomas F. (1828-1898), an 
American statesman. He was born at 
Wilmington, Delaware, in which city he 
practiced law until elected to the United 
States Senate. He was a member of the 
electoral commission of 1876, secretary 
of state in President Cleveland’s first cabi¬ 
net, and ambassador to the Court of St. 
James in Cleveland’s second term. He 
belonged to an old Huguenot family, 
whose ancestor was driven from Paris to 


Holland to escape persecution. A son of 
this refugee married a sister of Peter 
Stuyvesant, the famous Dutch governor 
of New York, and became a wealthy mer¬ 
chant in Amsterdam. Upon his death, 
however, the widow followed her brother 
Peter to the New World, and took up an 
estate on Manhattan Island, where the 
Astor Library now stands. Four descend¬ 
ants of the family have been members of 
the United States Senate, and others have 
held positions of no less distinction and re- 
sponsibilty. The family is noted for abili¬ 
ty and uprightness of character. 

Bay City, a city of the lower Michigan 
peninsula, situated on the Saginaw River 
three miles from Saginaw Bay. It is the 
county seat of Bay County and is notable 
for its fine public buildings and beautiful 
streets. It is a railroad center, important 
as a distributing point for a large district. 
Among industries are foundries, chemical 
works, bicycle works, and shipyards. It 
has also coal mines and lumber interests, 
and manufactures beet sugar, boxes, and 
wooden ware. Its population in 1920 was 
47,554. 

Bayeux (ba-yu') Tapestry, a famous 
piece of needlework or embroidered tap¬ 
estry made by Matilda, wife of William 
the Conqueror, or under her immediate 
direction. It is 20 inches wide and 230 
feet long. It contains 1,512 figures with 
Latin inscriptions, giving their names and 
the subjects of composition. It is sup¬ 
posed to be a panoramic representation of 
the invasion and subjugation of England 
by the Normans. The events are those 
leading up to and immediately connected 
with the battle of Hastings, 1066. It is 
therefore exceedingly interesting, not only 
as a specimen representative of the needle¬ 
work of the Middle Ages, but also for cer¬ 
tain details of history not given by the 
chroniclers of that period. Matilda is 
said to have given this tapestry to the 
library of the Cathedral of Bayeux, where 
it was discovered in 1728. During the 
Napoleonic wars, Napoleon carried it 
away to Paris, but later it was brought 
back to Bayeux and is now exhibited in 
the city hall. See Hastings ; Normandy ; 
Tapestry. 


















BAYLOR UNIVERSITY—BEACH 


Baylor University. An institution 
owned and controlled by trustees elected 
by the Baptist General Convention of 
Texas. It was founded at Independence 
under a charter issued by the Republic of 
Texas in 1845. In 1886 Baylor and Waco 
Universities were united, taking the name 
of Baylor, but located at Waco. It has a 
school of Fine Arts in Waco. 

In 1903 it organized its colleges of 
Medicine and Pharmacy at Dallas, Texas. 
These are graded “A,” as is the Baylor 
Hospital, a teaching institution with a 
closed staff. In 1918 it organized a Col¬ 
lege of Dentistry at Dallas. It is “A” 
grade. In 1920 it organized a Law De¬ 
partment. It will graduate its first class 
this year. In all departments the faculties 
number about 180. The enrollment for 
the past year was 2,391. 

Bayonet, a steel dagger or stabbing 
instrument, made to be attached by an in¬ 
fantryman to the muzzle of his gun. In 
its original form, it had a sharp point and 
three edges. It was also made with a flat 
or sword-shaped blade. The shank was 
inserted in the muzzle of the gun after 
the soldier had fired. An improvement 
has been introduced by forming a shank 
in the shape of a ring in which the muzzle 
of the musket may be inserted in such a 
way that the soldier may fire his gun with 
the bayonet fixed. The name is derived 
from Bayonne, a Biscayan town of France, 
where it is said to have been invented, and 
this theory is very probable. 

Bayonne, N. J., an important manu¬ 
facturing city, situated on Newark and 
New York bays, and on the Lehigh Valley 
and the Central of New Jersey railroads, 
about six miles southwest of New York. 
It is the most important distributing point 
for petroleum on the Atlantic Coast and 
the largest refinery works of the Standard 
Oil Company are here. These are con¬ 
nected by pipelines with the oil fields of 
Pennsylvania and Ohio and with the lead¬ 
ing cities along the Atlantic Coast as far 
as New Orleans. The largest works of 
the American Radiator Company are also 
here, as well as many lesser manufactories. 
Bayonne is an attractive residential city 
and manv homes of New York business 


in northern Bavaria, midway between 
Munich and Leipsic. Bayreuth is noted as 
a seat of culture, and is the place chosen 
by Richard Wagner for Wagnerian festi¬ 
vals devoted to the rendering of his music. 
The town is pleasantly situated. It has 
fine buildings and a large local trade. 
Population, 33,128. See Wagner. 

Bay State. See Massachusetts. 

Bazaine, Francois Achilles (1811- 
1885), a courageous but unfortunate mar¬ 
shal of France, was born at Versailles. 
Entering the French army at the age of 
twenty, he served in Algeria, Spain, the 
Crimea, and the Italian campaign of 
1859, winning distinction in almost every 
battle. Bazaine was sent to Mexico at the 
head of a French army, in pursuance of an 
allied plan of intervention—to which 
France was a party—in the struggles be¬ 
tween Miramon and Juarez. When the 
war with Germany opened, Bazaine was 
put in command of the Third Army Corps, 
near Metz, and after the battles of Worth 
and Spichern he took command of the 
main French armies. After a series of de¬ 
feats, he retired into the fortress of Metz, 
which, on October 27, 1870, he surren¬ 
dered. As a result of this unsoldierly 
capitulation, Bazaine was tried by court 
martial in 1873, and sentenced to death. 
This sentence was commuted to imprison¬ 
ment for twenty years on Isle Sainte- 
Marguerite. He escaped from the island 
in 1874 and went to Madrid, Spain, where 
he died. 

Beach, Rex Ellingwood (1877 —), 

an American magazine writer and novelist, 
born at Atwood, Michigan. He was edu¬ 
cated at Rollen’s College, Winter Park, 
Fla., and at Chicago College of Law and 
Kent College of Law, Chicago. The im¬ 
mediate success of several short stories, 
however, caused him to devote his time 
to writing instead of the practice of law. 
The appearance of Pardners (1905) and 
of The Spoilers (1906) gained for him 
a wide popularity as a writer of fiction 
and assured his literary career. Among 
his more recent books are: The Barrier, 
Going Some, The Ne } er-Do-Well, The 
Net, and The Iron Trail. Several of his 
stories have been dramatized and a number 


BEACON FIRE—BEADS 


of them have furnished material for the 
moving picture screen. 

Beacon Fire, a signal fire. Before the 
days of telegraphy, beacon fires kindled on 
hills were used to convey important intelli¬ 
gence, such as the approach of an in¬ 
vading army. A bright fire by night or 
a dense smoke by day could be seen for a 
long distance. A line of beacons carried 
news from mountain top to mountain top 
with great speed. An old act of the Scot¬ 
tish Parliament, 1455, relating to the bor¬ 
der beacons, directed that “One bale on 
fire should be warning of the approach of 
the English in any manner; two bales blaz¬ 
ing beside each other that they are coming 
indeed; and four bales that they are com¬ 
ing in great force.” Similar fire signals 
were employed, we are told, in ancient Per¬ 
sia, Palestine, and Greece. The Swiss kept 
watchers on guard to light beacons in case 
of invading Austrians. Within recent 
years the Indians of the Rocky Mountain 
regions used signal fires to convey intelli¬ 
gence of the movements of the United 
States troops, arranging beforehand a great 
variety of signals to be given. The lan¬ 
tern hung for Paul Revere in the tower of 
North Church was a signal of this sort. 
The lantern carried by the railroad brakes¬ 
man may be regarded as a sort of beacon 
light. It is used to give signals. 

Beaconsfield. See Disraeli. 

Beads, small perforated globules or 
cylinder"' used for ornamental purposes. 
They may be made of different material, 
as amber, coral, garnet, steel, pearl, rock 
crystal, and various seeds, but chiefly of 
glass. Glass beads have been found in the 
cases of Egyptian mummies, in the* ruins 
of Nineveh, and in the burial places of 
the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Britons. 
The Phoenicians are believed to have un¬ 
derstood the manufacture of glass beads, 
3000 B. C. During the Middle Ages, 
Venice became noted for the manufacture 
of beads. It is still the most important 
center of the industry. Millions of pounds 
are made each year. T he glass is first 
stained with any desired luster, or varie¬ 
gated by threads of different colored glass, 
and is then drawn out into tubes of the 


desired diameter. The beads are then 
pinched off. If smooth ends are desired., 
the beads are heated almost to the fusing 
point. Some of the expensive sorts are cut 
and polished like diamonds. 

As an article of barter, beads have 
played no small part, not only in the cara¬ 
van trade of the ancients, but later in 
dealing with the savage tribes of India, 
Africa, and America. One writer enumer¬ 
ates no less than 400 kinds used in trading 
with the African negroes. The Indians of 
North America were skillful in weaving 
beads into the ornaments of their hunting 
shirts and moccasins. The wampum of 
the American Indian was in fact but a 
band of shell beads. 

Civilized nations, as well as savages, are 
pleased with beads. They are worn as 
necklaces and are woven into laces and jet 
ornaments. In the service of the Roman 
Catholic church, a string of beads has 
long been employed as a convenient method 
of counting off prayers. “The Rosary of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary,” for instance, 
consists in the recital of fifteen decades 
of Aves; each ten is preceded by a Pater 
Noster and followed by a Gloria. The 
prayers are divided into three chap¬ 
lets of five decades each; one for the joys, 
one for the sorrows, and a third for the 
glories of Christ. A string of beads con¬ 
sisting of one for each prayer in the chap¬ 
let is called a rosary. The penitent keeps 
track of his prayers by telling his beads, 
that is, slipping one through his fingers for 
each repetition. In fact, the name bead 
is derived from the old English word bede, 
akin to bid and bade, meaning a prayer. 
To tell one’s beads is to say one’s prayers. 
A beadsman is one who says prayers. 

See Barter; Wampum. 

The hooded clouds, like friars, 

Tell their beads in drops of rain. 

—Longfellow, Midnight Mass. 

I envy them, those monks of old; 

Their books they read and their beads they 
told.—G. P. R. James, The Monks of Old. 

Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told 
His rosary, and while his frosted breath. 

Like pious incense from a censer old. 

Seem’d taking flight for heaven. 

—Keats, The Eve of St. Agnes. 


BEAN—BEAR 


Bean, a name applied to various plants 
of the pea family. Bailey recognizes 
five types. 

1. The broadbean of history, an erect 
plant with large flattened seeds. This sort 
is much grown in Europe for fodder and 
ensilage. The summers of the United 
States are too short and hot for it, though 
the broadbean is grown to some ex¬ 
tent in eastern Canada for cattle. It is 
closely related to our handsome wild peas 
of the copse wood ( vicia ). Originally it 
is said to come from the Caspian region. 

2. The kidney bean. This is the type 
usually meant by the American bean. The 
navy bean belongs to this variety. It in¬ 
cludes our common American held, garden, 
soup, and string beans. Whether bush or 
climbing, this is the bean of commerce, and 
the “Boston baked bean.” 

3. The Lima bean. A tall pole bean 
with large flat seeds, really a member of 
the second group. 

4. Slender beans. South American 
beans of a long, slender type in which we 
are little interested. 

5. Soy beans. A Japanese or Chinese 
bean lately attracting attention in the 
United States as a forage plant. 

Beans are raised easily. As shiftless a 
man as Thoreau raised them at Walden 
Pond. To say that land is “too poor to 
raise beans,” is to place a low estimate on 
its fertility. Harvesting, however, is an¬ 
other matter. Beans must be pulled and 
allowed to dry before they can be threshed. 
Many growers pile them up about stakes 
and protect from rain by a canvas 
cover. In continued dry weather they may 
be cured on the ground, but this method is 
risky. The bean crop of the United States 
is about 10,000,000 bushels. Michigan, 
New York, California, Maine, and Florida 
raise from 100,000 to 1,000,000 bushels 
each. In addition, about 19,000 acres are 
planted in green beans yielding a million 
and a half bushels of string beans for the 
market. It is stated that a dollar will buy 
more food in the shape of beans than in 
any other form. Sheep are fond of beans. 

See Pea; Clover; Weevil. 

Bear, a family of well known animals. 
The bear has a shaggy coat, a heavy, clum¬ 


sy body, and a short tail. It walks on the 
entire sole of the foot, rather than on the 
toes. The nearest American relative is the 
raccoon. There are many species, distribut¬ 
ed throughout Europe, Asia, and Ameri¬ 
ca; but, excepting in the Atlas Mountains, 
none are known in Africa or Australia. 
The bear of history is the common brown 
bear of Europe, which, however, is be¬ 
coming very scarce. It had disappeared in 
England by the time of the Norman Con¬ 
quest. It is the heraldic emblem of the 
Swiss canton of Berne. Kipling likens 
Russia to “the bear that walks like a man.” 

Four groups are recognized in America: 
The black bear, the white bear, the grizzly 
bear, and the brown bear; in all, as some 
think, seventeen or more species. The cin¬ 
namon bear is classed with the black bear. 
The black bear is distributed everywhere in 
North American forests, unless extermi¬ 
nated. It is rather a solitary animal, each 
family occupying its own range, to the ex¬ 
clusion of others. It enjoys a great varie¬ 
ty of food,—fish, insects, acorns, beech 
nuts, and, in time of scarcity, it is not 
averse to carrying away a farmer’s pigs or 
sheep. It is fond of berries, especially of 
blueberries and bearberries. The bear is 
also very fond of honey. It digs up the 
nests of bumblebees, and will tear open 
a rotten log or tree in which a swarm of 
bees may have hived. Its thick hair pro¬ 
tects it from the sting of the bees. This 
bear is entirely inoffensive and attacks a 
person only under the most extreme provo¬ 
cation, or in defense of its young. From 
one to three cubs are produced at a birth, 
and remain blind for about four weeks. 
In the autumn, the bear rolls itself up in 
a hollow tree or cavern, or in an excavation 
under some stump or log, and sleeps 
through the winter. It is a very imita¬ 
tive, good natured animal. If not tor¬ 
mented, a tame bear will roll about the 
dooryard playing with the dog and chil¬ 
dren. Specimens kept on the parade 
ground of a military post have been known 
to go through the manual of arms without 
instructions, shouldering a stick for the 
purpose. 

In addition to the ordinary black bear, 
the group includes the Labrador bear, the 


BEAR AND BULL—BEARBERRY 


Louisiana bear, the everglade bear, the cin¬ 
namon bear of the Rockies, the Queen 
Charlotte bear of British Columbia, and 
the glacier bear of Alaska, the latter be¬ 
ing the smallest American bear known. 

The polar bear of the far north is 
creamy white. This bear brings forth its 
hardy young in such a den as can be made 
in an Arctic region, frequently under the 
snow. It swims with great facility, pur¬ 
suing seals and fishes in the water; the 
eider duck, and other Arctic birds on land. 
A young walrus is quite to the polar bear’s 
taste. In summer, it varies a flesh diet 
with roots and mosses. This bear follows 
the edge of the ice pack. No water is too 
icy, no weather too cold, for this bear. 
With its warm, shaggy coat, it quite en¬ 
joys its Arctic home. Its tracks have been 
seen as far north as 84°. Owing to the 
nature of the region in which it lives, the 
polar bear is likely to live after all other 
species are extinct. As many as a score 
have been seen at one time on a single 
islet. A well grown specimen weighs eight 
hundred or a thousand pounds. 

The prevalent western species of the 
Rocky Mountains is the powerful grizzly 
bear, a strong, but, if let alone, not a 
dangerous animal. It seldom attacks man. 
However, it is considered an undesirable 
neighbor in the vicinity of a stock ranch. 
Bret Harte has described the grizzly ad¬ 


mirably in the following lines: 

Coward,—of heroic size, 

In whose lazy muscles lies 
Strength we fear and yet despise; 

Savage, whose relentless tusks 
Are content with acorn husks; 

Robber, whose exploits ne’er soared 
O’er the bee’s or squirrel’s hoard; 
Whiskered chin and feeble nose, 

Claws of steel on baby’s toes. 

Joaquin Miller, who has written a 
whole book of bear stories, states that he 
never knew a grizzly to begin a fight or 
to eat human flesh. They are clumsy, good- 
natured eaters of berries, capable of be¬ 
coming enraged, but they are never cruel. 
They never toy as a cat does with a mouse. 
Grizzly bears at one time were found as 
far east as Minnesota but the genuine 
grizzly of California is now rare, there 
are some fine specimens in the Yellowstone 
National Park. Allied species are the 


Sonora grizzly found in New Mexico, the 
Alaskan grizzly, and the Barren-Ground 
grizzly which is still hunted in the Great 
Slave Lake region. 

The group of American brown bears 
was distributed until of late among the 
blacks and grizzlies. It contains several 
Alaskan species. The Kadiak bear, found 
chiefly on the island of that name, is 
the largest of all bears, the largest flesh 
eating animal known. It eats berries, 
grass, and salmon. Skulls nineteen inches 
in length are in museums. A specimen 
killed lately pleasured fifty-one inches in 
height at the shoulder. The outstretched 
forepaws were capable of spanning ten 
feet, six inches. The Kadiak bear weighs 
twice as much as a grizzly. 

See Bearberry; Berne. 

Bear and Bull, the popular names of two 
classes of brokers or operators on the stock 
exchange, or board of trade. The names 
derive from the mode of attack of each of 
the animals named—the bear tries to tear 
down with his claws, while the bull tries 
to toss up with his horns. Hence the stock 
exchange bear endeavors to force prices 
down, while the bull tries to force them up. 

Bear Baiting, the practice of setting 
mastiffs to fight with captive bears. The 
custom was once prevalent in England, 
and afforded, great amusement, both to 
rustics and those of high degree; but it was 
a matter of life or death for the bear. 
The sport was forbidden by Parliament in 
1853. One of Macaulay’s most enjoyable 
quips at the expense of the Puritans is 
found in discussing bear-baiting. “The 
Puritans hated it, not because it gave pain 
to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to 
the spectators.” The real reason for ob¬ 
jection, of course, was that they knew the 
sport brutalized the spectators. The Puri¬ 
tans were the first modern legislators to 
insist on humane treatment of all dumb 
animals. 

Bear, Great and Little. See Constel¬ 
lation. 

Bearberry, a small, red-fruited plant of 
the blueberry kind. The ordinary bear¬ 
berry grows in northern blueberry coun¬ 
tries everywhere,—in Siberia, northern Eu¬ 
rope, and North America. It is a favorite 


BEARINGS 


berry with the common bear. Some thirty 
other species of bearberry are found, 
chiefly in North and Central America. 
One, the Nevada bearberry, grows in the 
haunts of the grizzly bear, illustrating the 
principle that certain plants and animals 
are found together. Change your berry 
and you change your bear. 

Bearings, in machinery, the name given 
to the parts in contact with which a jour¬ 
nal moves. In a shaft or axle, the bearing 
is the part in contact with its supports; and 
in general, a bearing is the part of any 
piece where it is supported, or the part of 
another piece on which it rests. In an 
automobile, for example, the bearings are 
the parts which support the axles and other 
members which revolve, and they are de¬ 
signed to do this with as little friction as 
possible. Bearings are used at the two ends 
of the connecting rods on a steam engine. 
For reciprocating motion the surfaces of 
the bearings must be made up of elements 
that are straight in line with the motion, 
and such bearings are usually called guides. 
For rotary motion the bearing surfaces 
must be “surfaces of revolution,” as in the 
automobile, with other examples in the 
hangers of mill shafting, the pivots of turn¬ 
tables, the trucks of railway cars, etc. The 
portion of a revolving shaft which lies in 
the bearing is known as a journal, and be¬ 
tween this and the bearing a film of lubri¬ 
cant is usually maintained to reduce fric¬ 
tion. For the same purpose, the bearing 
surfaces are often made of special metal. 

Bearings are mainly of three types— 
plain, ball, and roller bearings, and may be 
exclusively of one type or may combine 
any two of these types in one bearing. The 
shaft may be made to revolve in the bearing 
or the bearing may be made to revolve 
around the shaft. Plain bearings consist 
fundamentally of a “female” reproduction 
of the journal on the shaft, just sufficiently 
greater in size than the journal to permit 
of easy motion and the introduction of 
lubricant. Usually, however, it is arranged 
in designing plain bearings that different 
metals shall be opposed for the frictional 
surfaces, to lessen friction. With this end 
in view, castings for plain bearings gen¬ 
erally have the bore “bushed” or lined with 


the metal that is most suitable for the con¬ 
ditions under which the bearing has to 
work. The bearings used in automobiles 
have to contend with varying loads and 
high speeds, so that in order to provide the 
necessary wearing qualities the bearings are 
often constructed of phosphor or manga¬ 
nese bronze, or some other anti-friction 
metal which works well when opposed to 
steel. 

Ball bearings are those in which a row 
or rows of hardened steel balls, traveling 
in a proper track or ball race, are inserted 
between the revolving and stationary faces. 
On account of the slight frictional contact 
and the rolling action of the balls them¬ 
selves, these bearings allow of very high 
speeds being attained with a minimum of 
friction and immunity from overheating. 
A common example of the use of ball bear¬ 
ings is found in bicycle and motorcycle 
hubs, and bearings of this type also give 
good results under heavy loads. 

Roller bearings embody fundamentally 
the same principle as ball bearings, but 
theoretically a line contact is obtained in¬ 
stead of a point contact, as with a ball. 
The shaft rests within a cage in which 
rollers are closely spaced, and bears on the 
rollers, which are free to revolve either 
freely on their own axes or between the 
shaft and an outer casing of hard steel. 
The cage is for the purpose of keeping the 
rollers apart from each other and insuring 
that they shall always maintain a position 
parallel with the line of the shaft. With 
roller bearings the same advantages are 
gained of reduced friction as with ball 
bearings, but with the further gain that the 
bearing is not limited to a single point, but 
may be etxended to any required length. 
And as parallel roller bearings are incap¬ 
able of adjustment, this difficulty has been 
met by the use of conical rollers, which 
may also be so designed as to take up the 
end thrust which has to be provided for in 
the case of motor vehicles. The amount of 
power that may be saved by the use of 
roller bearings renders them extremely 
valuable in automobile construction, and 
they give excellent results in wheel hubs, 
rear axles, and transmission. The conical 
roller bearing is popular for these purposes. 


BEATTIE—BEAUREGARD 


Bearings are also named from the func¬ 
tions they perform; for example, collar 
bearings, thrust bearings, and cone bear¬ 
ings. These terms, however, denote the 
combination of the male and female por¬ 
tions. A collar bearing consists of a jour¬ 
nal bounded by two collars or parallel con¬ 
centric rings attached to the body of the 
shaft and working so as to permit of rotary 
but not of lateral motion. Thrust bearings, 
as the name implies, are used for taking 
the thrust or end pressure off a shaft, and 
there are many forms. Both types of bear¬ 
ings are used in motor vehicles. The great 
thing for the motorist to remember about 
bearinrs is that they should be kept tight. 

Beattie, James (1735-1803), a Scotch 

poet and philosophical writer. He was 
educated at Marenshall College, Aberdeen, 
where he later became professor of moral 
philosophy. He is best known by The 
Minstrel, a long poem representing the 
development of the poetical genius of a 
youth from childhood until he became a 
poet, a minstrel. His other works include 
Essays on Nature and Immutability of 
Truth, Dissertations, Elements of Moral 
Science. 

Beatty, be' a ti, Sir David (1871—), 
a British naval officer who was promi¬ 
nent in the Great War. He joined the 
navy at the age of 13. At the outbreak 
of the World War, he commanded the 
first battle-cruiser squadron and in 
August, 1914, he led a British fleet into 
the bight of Helgoland and attacked a 
part of the German fleet, sinking three 
armored cruisers and two destroyers. In 
1915, Beatty was raised to the rank of 
vice-admiral and, in May, 1916, he proved 
his skill as a commander in the battle of 
Jutland. The following December he suc¬ 
ceeded Sir John Jellico as commander-in- 
chief of the British fleet. In 1901 Sir 
David married Miss Ethel Field, eldest 
daughter of the late Marshall Field of 
Chicago. 

Beau Brummel, brum'el, George Bry¬ 
an Brummel (1778-1840), a famous leader 
of fashionable London society. He was a 
favorite of the Prince of Wales, afterward 
George IV. Inheriting a fortune, he lived 
in splendid style, gave magnificent dinners 


and enjoyed the most aristocratic society. 
For twenty-one years his word was law in 
all matters pertaining to court dress and 
etiquette. Then suddenly, the Prince’s 
favor was withdrawn. Brummel’s money, 
too, had been spent or lost at the gaming 
table, and the “Beau” retired to Calais to 
live his last years in poverty. His mind 
gave way under the strain and he died 
in a lunatic asylum. 

Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin 
Caron (1732-1799), the most important 
French dramatist of the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury. He was a musician as a young man, 
and became teacher of the harp to the 
daughters of Louis XV. His best works 
are the two comedies, The Marriage of 
Figaro , and the Barber of Seville. Both 
are replete with wit, satire and general 
liveliness, and made their author justly 
popular. 

Beaumont, Francis (1586-1616), and 
Fletcher, John (1576-1625), two Eng¬ 
lish dramatic writers. Little is known of 
the lives of these two men except that for 
ten years they were so closely associated as 
friends and literary partners that we rare¬ 
ly hear their names separately. Beaumont 
was educated at Oxford; Fletcher at Cam¬ 
bridge. They drifted to London. Their 
intimacy began in 1608 and continued un¬ 
til broken by Beaumont’s death. Together 
they produced about fifty-two plays. The 
best known are The Maid’s Tragedy, The 
Knight of the Burning Pestle, Philaster, 
and The Faithful Shepherdess. Of the 
two, Fletcher was undoubtedly the greater. 

Beaumont, Tex., on the west bank of 
the Neches River, is the county seat of 
Jefferson Co. At the head of tidewater 
navigation, it is an important shipping 
point; but it is most notable as an oil 
center. The gusher wells drilled on the 
rock formation known as Spindle Top are 
among the most remarkable in the history 
of the oil industry. It is also in the center 
of an extensive rice growing region. The 
largest rice mill in the country is here. 
It has a fine school system, and the Bell 
Austin Institute is here. Population, 1920, 
40,422. 

Beauregard, bo'reh-gard', Pierre 
Gustave (1818-1893), an American sol- 


BEAUTY AND THE BEAST-BEAVER 


dier. He was a native of New Orleans 
and a graduate of West Point. He distin¬ 
guished himself in the Mexican War, but 
resigned from the Union Army to enter 
the Confederate service. He is noted as 
the commander who gave orders for the 
reducing of Fort Sumter, which was ac¬ 
complished April 12, 1861, and may be 
said to have precipitated the Civil War 
beyond all hope of recall. He led the 
victorious Confederates at the battle of 
Bull Run in the same year, and was with 
Johnston at Shiloh. After the close of 
the war, he engaged in various commercial 
enterprises. He accepted at one time the 
management of the nefarious Louisiana 
lottery, a course which occasioned his 
friends much regret. See Sumter; Civ¬ 
il War. 

Beauty and the Beast, an old fairy 
tale told in various forms and in many 
languages. The story is that of a beau¬ 
tiful young girl, who, to save the life of 
her unfortunate father, becomes the guest 
of a frightful monster. The Beast, how¬ 
ever, proves both kind and intelligent. 
In spite of his ugliness, Beauty learns to 
love him. He is then able to resume his 
true form, which is that of a handsome 
young prince. The story has- many Eng¬ 
lish versions, Miss Thackeray’s being the 
most worthy of mention. A counterpart 
to the tale is thought to exist in the old 
Greek legend of Eros and Psyche. See 
Psyche. 

Beaver, an aquatic gnawing animal re¬ 
sembling the muskrat. It is the largest 
rodent now living. At one time the beaver 
was common throughout northern Europe 
and North America as far south as central 
Mexico. Beaver skins were a sort of cur¬ 
rency among the American settlers, and 
formed a considerable article of export to 
the mother country. The demand for this 
fur was so great that large trading compa¬ 
nies were formed, with posts extending 
throughout British America. The Ameri¬ 
can range of the beaver is now restricted 
to a few scattering colonies in northern 
New England, the Lake Superior region, 
and from the Rio Grande Valley north¬ 
ward in Canada to the limit of trees. Un¬ 
der shelter of a law forbidding their being 


trapped, prior to 1910, beavers are said 
to have become numerous in certain 
parts of northern Michigan. A few colo¬ 
nies are still found under protection in 
Russia and Norway. The beaver became 
extinct in England about the time of Rich¬ 
ard I. 

The life of the beaver is a peculiar one. 
When a band of beavers takes possession 
of a stream, their first care is to secure 
a pond of water by constructing a dam. 
Saplings and brush are gnawed off near 
the ground, dragged into the water, and 
laid in the channel lengthwise, where they 
are weighted down with earth and stones. 
This process is continued until the entire 
channel has been filled. They then make 
their dam water-tight by covering the up¬ 
per end with earth, grass, and clay. They 
convey material between their fore-paws, 
and pat it into place with their feet. The 
object of the dam is to form a pond so 
deep that it will not freeze to the bottom 
in the coldest weather. If at any time 
a leak is sprung, the beaver hastens to 
mend it. A burrow with its entrance under 
water is dug for some distance into the 
bank, turning upward under an old stump 
or other place of concealment, where the 
mother rears her young. The beaver lives 
chiefly on the bark of the birch, basswood, 
maple, and poplar. Beavers seldom show 
themselves in the daytime. The mo$t of 
their work is done in the evening and 
morning twilight. 

The beaver is about thirty inches in 
length, reddish brown above, and grayish 
below. It weighs from thirty to fifty 
pounds. Its pelt is still in great demand. 
When the long outer hairs are plucked 
out, the beaver’s fur is of unsurpassed 
softness and durability, ranking perhaps 
next to that of the seal. The paws are 
small; in swimming they are folded under 
the body; they enable the beaver to han¬ 
dle and carry sticks, limbs of trees, mud 
and stones; he uses his paws as hands 
while sitting up or walking on his hind 
legs. The hind legs are the propelling 
power in swimming, and the feet are fully 
webbed to the roots of the claws. The 
beaver has a bare tail shaped like that of 
a muskrat. It is about nine inches long 


BEBEL—BECKY SHARP 


and four wide. It serves as a rudder. 
Good authority states that the tail is used 
to slap the water by way of giving alarm, 
but that it is not used as a trowel in build¬ 
ing dams. The beaver is able to cut down 
large trees even a foot or two in diameter, 
the branches of which it gnaws off and 
drags to the bottom of the pond beneath 
the reach of frost. It thus secures a food 
supply for the winter. Passages lead from 
the bottom of the pond to an upper cham¬ 
ber, where the beaver stays during winter. 
See Muskrat. 

Bebel, Ferdinand August (1840- 
1913), a famous leader of the Social Demo¬ 
cratic Party of Germany, was born at 
Cologne. He set up as a master turner in 
Leipzig and there came under the influence 
of Wilhelm Liebknecht and was converted 
to Socialism. Throwing himself into the 
work of the organization with a whole- 4 
souled devotion, Bebel rose to be chairman 
of the permanent committee of the German 
workingmen’s unions in 1867. In 1872, 
he was accused of high treason and sen¬ 
tenced to prison for two years and nine 
months. During this and other but briefer 
terms of imprisonment Bebel made up for 
his lack of education and incidentally in¬ 
creased his prestige with the German work¬ 
ers. He succeeded Liebknecht as editor 
of Vorwaerts, organ of the Social Demo¬ 
cratic Party. Bebel is the author of sev¬ 
eral books, including The German Peasant 
War, Our Aims, Women and Socialism, 
and an autobiography. 

Bee, a famous Norman abbey. The 
name is derived from a beck or rivulet 
by which a pious knight fixed his hermit¬ 
age. His fame for piety attracted follow¬ 
ers until a religious community was 
formed according to the Rules of St. Ben¬ 
edict. Lanfranc, a Lombard scholar of 
noble ancestry, became a lay brother. Un¬ 
der his influence the monastery acquired 
a reputation for learning. Anselm came 
to study and remained to become abbot. 
Under these men, both of whom became 
archbishops of Canterbury, Bee, says 
Green in his History of the English 
People, became for a time the most famous 
school in Christendom. Phe school of 


Bee flourished during the eleventh century. 
Bee is now a mere ruin. See Anselm. 

Becket, bek'et, Thomas a (1117- 
1170), Archbishop of Canterbury. He 
was educated at Oxford, London, and 
Paris. In the service of King Henry II, 
he rose from poverty to be lord high chan¬ 
cellor and the king’s favorite adviser in 
war as well as in peace. Henry had him 
appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, ex¬ 
pecting in all controversies with the 
church to have Becket on his side. Beck¬ 
et was no sooner confirmed as archbishop, 
however, than he abandoned his frivolity 
and riotous living, and became the most 
decorous of prelates, zealous for the dig¬ 
nity of the church. He was soon engaged 
in a quarrel with the king, relative to cer¬ 
tain privileges of the clergy, and the 
wicked doings of some of the nobility 
whom Becket proceeded to excommuni¬ 
cate. The trouble between Henry and his 
archbishop rose to such a pitch that the 
exasperated monarch is said to have ex¬ 
claimed, “Have I not about me one man 
of spirit enough to rid me of a single in¬ 
solent prelate?” Three of his followers 
took the hint and repaired to Canterbury, 
where they slew Becket at the foot of the 
altar. The pope took up the matter. King 
Henry was required to do penance at 
the saint’s tomb. The populace regarded 
Becket as a hero, a friend of the common 
people, and a martyr. Pilgrimages to 
Canterbury to the shrine of so holy a per¬ 
son were quite the fashion and are de¬ 
scribed in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 
See Canterbury ; Chaucer. 

Becky Sharp, or Rebecca Sharp, the 

principal female character in Thackeray’s 
Vanity Fair. She is represented as a 
friendless girl, “with the dismal precocity 
of poverty,” determined to rise in the 
world. She is described as “small and 
slight of person, pale, sandy-haired, and 
with green eyes, habitually cast down, but 
very large, odd, and attractive when they 
looked up.” With wit, tact, and resolu¬ 
tion to make her way, without scruple or 
conscience or moral principle, there is 
in all literature no other such striking 
picture of the managing woman as Becky 


BED—BEDE 


Sharp. She is everywhere the recognized 
type of the shrewd and skillful adven¬ 
turess. See Vanity Fair; Thackeray. 

Bed, a place to sleep. If a person 
works in one place, eats in another, and 
sleeps in a third, the place of his bed is 
his home or legal residence. We are so 
accustomed to think of a bed as consisting 
of a bedstead, springs, a mattress, sheets, 
pillows, and blankets or coverlets, that 
we hardly realize how the great majority 
of people sleep. There are still tribes of 
mankind that lie in lairs like wild beasts. 
The traveler with a dog team in Eskimo 
land, sleeps in a fur bag and hood. He 
is able to lie down in the shelter of a 
snowbank anywhere. The Persian sleeps 
on an oriental rug; the little brown Jap 
lies on a piece of matting with a wooden 
block—a short log of bamboo—for a pil¬ 
low; the Russian peasant places his mat¬ 
tress on the top of a huge earthenware 
stove; the well-to-do German sleeps alone 
in a narrow feather bed with a light, 
downy, feather mattress to cover him. 
The Romans considered the introduction 
of feather beds a sign of luxury and an 
indication that the nation was going to 
ruin. They first taught the rude inhabit¬ 
ants of Britain to sew up the leaves and 
hair of their beds in ticks. In the time 
of Francis I the French bed of state was 
so high that it required a stepladder. 
The uncorrupted American Indian slept 
between fur robes; the Kentucky settler 
made a bunk or platform of poles in one 
corner of the cabin. In this he piled 
beech and oak leaves and covered them 
with furs, making a bed fit for royalty. 
The woodsman of the north gathers the 
ends of spruce boughs and arranges them, 
tips upward, to form a fragrant bed. 
Wrapped in his blanket, he sleeps a sleep 
unknown to the inhabitant of the city. 
The lumberman constructs board bunks 
naif filled with hay, on which he spreads 
his blankets. In the Gulf States, the 
bedstead, usually with four high posts, 
is still protected by a rectangular canopy 
to exclude insects. Of late, bedsteads of 
enameled iron, vermin proof, have come 
into favor. Hair mattresses are preferred 


to feathers because they afford better ven¬ 
tilation. See Furniture. 

Bedbug, a nocturnal insect infesting 
houses the world over. The bedbug is 
reddish brown, with a flat, ovate body 
about one-sixth of an inch long. It lives 
in cracks in furniture, floors, and wood¬ 
work. Determined housekeepers say that 
the bedbug can be exterminated in any 
home by a repeated feathering of all pos¬ 
sible lurking places with corrosive subli¬ 
mate dissolved in alcohol. The bedbug 
is wingless. The nest of the barn-swallow 
is infested by a related species. There is 
a popular impression, probably unfounded, 
that chimney swallows bring bedbugs. 

Bede, bed, a learned and industrious 
English monk of the monastery of Jar 
row, in the county of Durham. He lived 
about 673-735. He says of himself: “I 
applied myself wholly to the study of 
the Scriptures and, amid the observance of 
regular discipline and the daily care of 
singing in the church, I always took de¬ 
light in learning, teaching, and writing.” 
As a teacher he made the monastery so 
famous a center of learning that 600 
monks resorted thither to enjoy the library 
and be under the influence of Bede. He 
wrote treatises, in Latin, of course, on The 
Mature of Things, including astronomy, 
arithmetic, medicine, grammar, rhetoric, 
and music. His chief work, an Ecclesias¬ 
tical History of Our Island and Nation, 
was translated into Anglo-Saxon by King 
Alfred, and, being the earliest writing of 
the kind, gives Bede the honor of being 
called “The Father of English History.” 
In this work occurs the famous sentence, 
“There are no snakes in Ireland.” He 
declined the position of abbot, not wish¬ 
ing to fritter away his time in housekeep¬ 
ing affairs and office holding. Bede was 
buried at Jarrow. His bones were stolen 
by a pious man and carried to Durham 
cathedral on account of their sanctity, and 
were later inclosed in a fitting shrine; 
but during the riots and the sacking of 
Catholic places of worship in the reign 
of Henry VIII, the shrine was broken up 
and the ashes of the “Venerable Bede” 
were scattered. 


BEDFORD CORD—BEE 


First among English scholars, first among 
English theologians, first among English his¬ 
torians, it is in the monk of Jarrow that English 
literature strikes its roots. In the six hundred 
scholars who gathered round him for instruc¬ 
tion, he is the father of our national education. 
In his physical treatises he is the first figure to 
which our science looks back.—Green, History 
of the English People. 

Bedford Cord, a fabric of either cot¬ 
ton, wool, or worsted, characterized by 
rounded cords running warp wise of the 
web. The corded effect is similar to that 
of corduroy, but is produced by heavy 
threads instead of a pile. The fabric is 
neither napped nor sheared. It is used 
for women’s suits, and the worsted Bed¬ 
ford cord is in use for horsemen’s trou¬ 
sers. 

Bedlam, a corruption of Bethlehem. 
The priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem, 
London, founded in 1247, was afterward 
converted into a lunatic asylum known as 
Bedlam. From its use to designate this 
particular madhouse, the term has come 
to denote any scene of uproar and wild 
confusion. 

Bedouins, bed'oo-ens, nomadic Arabs. 
The name is Arabic, meaning dwellers in 
the desert. The term is used to distin¬ 
guish those tribes that still live, as in the 
days of Abraham, by means of their herds. 
The Bedouins live in tents. They raise 
cattle, horses, sheep, and camels. They 
move with the season from place to place 
in search of pasturage. Their herds and 
flocks are theft* care, but they have a repu¬ 
tation for being fond of the excitement 
and the booty to be had from plundering 
travelers and caravans. A Bedouin at¬ 
tack is not unlike an Indian raid in meth¬ 
od, and is on quite as high a plane as the 
border foray of Scottish song and story. 
Bedouin tribes inhabit the interior of Ara¬ 
bia and the Sahara region. They may 
be found in parts of Syria and in outlying 
parts of Egypt as well. Some tribes have 
engaged in the slave trade. No hard and 
fast distinction can be drawn between 
Bedouins and other Arabs, for some tribes 
dwell both in tents and in houses, accord¬ 
ing to the season of the year. The wom¬ 
en grind meal by hand and weave coarse 
cloth. When not in the saddle, the men 


lie around telling endless tales. The Bed¬ 
ouins profess a crude Mohammedanism. 
They are governed by tribal sheiks and 
cadis. 

Bee, a honey-making insect allied to 
the wasp and the ant. There are two or 
three hundred species. Some are solitary, 
each female bee making a cell somewhere 
in which to place her own eggs. Some 
species lay their eggs in the cells of oth¬ 
er bees, and hang around themselves to 
be fed. Several species of mining bees 
associate to the extent of digging a tun¬ 
nel or shaft in common, from which each 
female leads off a cross shaft for her own 
cell. Other species again, some of which 
it is difficult to tell from wasps, make mud 
cells or bore tunnels in twigs, or piece 
bits of leaves together into thimble-shaped 
cells, but always for the purpose of stor¬ 
ing a drop of honey and an egg that the 
helpless, footless grub may have a home 
and food until it grows and changes into 
a bee. Wasps All their cells or feed their 
young with insects, though oftentimes 
eating nectar themselves; but bees do not 
meddle with insects. They feed honey and 
pollen to their young and they eat honey. 

Of social bees that build combs in com¬ 
mon, our native species are all bumble¬ 
bees. The ordinary hive bee has been in¬ 
troduced from Europe. Wild bees hiving 
in the woods are European bees that have 
escaped from domesticity, some of them 
in colonial days. We have about fifty 
species of native bees or bumblebees. When 
winter comes the bumblebee queen hides 
away. The rest of the family perish, and 
in the spring the queen comes out, lays 
eggs, and starts a new family. One of 
the best paragraphs written by entomolo¬ 
gist Comstock is the following tribute to 
this cheerful American: 

The clumsy rover, the bumblebee, is an old 
friend of us all. As children we caught her off 
thistle-blossoms and imprisoned her in emptied 
milkweed pods, and bade her sing for us. We 
robbed her nest in the hayfield, and tried to be¬ 
lieve that the strongly-flavored honey, mixed 
with dirt, was delicious. And all our lives the 
sound of her droning has brought to us visions 
of blue skies, roadsides golden with buttercups, 
and fields purple with clover blossoms. And she 
has deserved all the attention and affection be¬ 
stowed upon her, because she is usually good* 


BEE 


natured and companionable. She is a happy- 
go-lucky insect, and takes life as it comes with¬ 
out any of the severe disciplining and exact 
methods of her cousin, the honey bee. 

Emerson has caught the same note: 

Burly, dozing bumble-bee, 

Where thou art is clime for me. 

Let them sail for Porto Rique, 

Far-off heats through seas to seek: 

I will follow thee alone, 

Thou animated torrid-zone! 

Zigzag steerer, desert cheerer, 

Let me chase thy waving lines: 

Keep me nearer, me thy hearer, 

Singing over shrubs and vines. 

Maeterlinck’s Life of the Bee, al¬ 
though not a technical or scientific trea¬ 
tise, is very interesting. Lubbock’s Ants, 
Bees, and Wasps should be read by one 
interested in these insects. 

The honey bee most valued by bee rais¬ 
ers is the Italian bee. The importation of 
Italian queen bees in tiny cages provided 
with bee food is a regular part of the busi¬ 
ness. The domestic arrangements of bees 
• have been the subject of much study and 
guesswork. There are three kinds of in¬ 
dividuals in a bee colony—drones, work¬ 
ers, and a queen. A strong hive contains 
several hundred drones and 35,000 to 
40,000 workers. The drones are the males. 
They are broader and blunter than the 
workers. They have no sting. They do 
no work. Usually at the end of the 
swarming season they are killed by the 
workers, or driven from the hive, al¬ 
though, if food be plenty, the massacre 
may not be complete. The workers are 
undeveloped females. They gather honey, 
build combs, fill cells, feed the young 
bees, defend the home, and keep it tidy. 
The queen is the honored head of the 
colony. She lays eggs at the rate of 4,000 
a day, producing two or three new swarms 
each season. The queen bee often lives 
four to five years, the workers live but a 
few months or often but a few weeks, and 
the drones until killed by the workers. 

The first need of a new swarm of bees, 
once it has found a hive or hollow tree, 
is beeswax to build combs. A delegation 
of the workers gorge themselves with hon¬ 
ey and hang themselves up like a curtain, 
clinging one to another from an overhead 
surface. In a day’s time wax begins to 


ooze from wax pockets in the crevices of 
their abdomens. The other workers gath¬ 
er this wax from their comrades, and pro¬ 
ceed to build the six-sided cells of a hon¬ 
eycomb. The comb cleared of honey is 
the beeswax of commerce. The workers 
consume twenty-one pounds of honey in 
producing one pound of wax. The cells 
are of two sizes. In the larger cells, the 
queen bee lays eggs that hatch into larvae 
that in turn become drones. In the small¬ 
er cells eggs are deposited that in the end 
produce workers. The young larvae 
(grubs) appear in twenty-one days and 
they are footless and helpless. Both 
young drones and young workers are 
tended by the workers and fed on honey 
and beebread. Beebread is made from 
the pollen of flowers, and is collected on 
their hind legs by the workers. 

A queen bee is reared by stimulating an 
extraordinary growth of one of the larvae 
from which a worker is ordinarily reared. 
The workers usually cut away the cell 
walls of three adjacent worker cells, and 
make one large cell. They destroy two 
of the eggs and feed the larva of the 
third an extraordinary quantity of “royal 
jelly,” an exceedingly rich food excreted 
from the mouth of a worker. When this 
well-fed larva emerges from the cell, a 
full-fledged queen, rivalry ensues. Many 
of the workers support the new queen and 
the old queen leaves, secedes, “swarms” 
with a large body of her followers and 
establishes a new colony. When a second 
queen bee hatches history repeats itself, 
and a second swarm leaves the hive. If 
several queen bees mature at the same time, 
a battle royal ensues between them. The 
workers allow them to use their enormous 
stings on each other till all but one are 
dead. They honor the survivor and carry 
her dead rivals out of the hive. 

Bees are inactive in winter, yet need 
some food. This they store up in the 
form of honey. The mouth parts of the 
workers are prolonged into a sort of tube 
which is inserted in flowers, in search of 
nectar. The nectar is stored in the hon¬ 
ey stomach of the bee and then deposited 
in the honeycomb. White clover yields 
excellent honey, but the bee is unable to 



1. Swarm. 2. Honeycomb. 3. Drone; (3a) head enlarged. 4. Queen bee; (4a) head en¬ 
larged. 5. Worker; (5a) head enlarged. 6. Larva. 7. Chrysalis of drone; (a) under view; 
(b) side view. 16. Head and mouth parts of worker. 17. Hind leg of worker; (17a) 
Brush. 18. Antenna greatly enlarged. 

BEES. 

8. Hornet. 9 Bee Wolf. 10. Wasp. 11. May beetle; (a) male; (b) female; (c) larvae of. 
same on flower. 12. Bee beetle; (a) larva of same. 13. Hump back fly enlarged; (a) 
larva enlarged. 14. Wax moth; (a) caterpillar of same. 15. Bee louse, enlarged. 

ENEMIES OP THE BEE. 




























BEE 


reach the nectar of red clover. Basswood 
honey is considered superior. Bears are 
fond of honey and are determined to have 
it, despite the stings of the infuriated bees. 
Not infrequently a swarm of bees, rob¬ 
ber bees, attacks the hive of a weaker colo¬ 
ny, and carries the honey away. Kipling’s 
Junglebook gives a vivid account of an in¬ 
vasion of “red dogs” that got into diffi¬ 
culty among the bees. 

The bee hunter or woodsman in search 
of wild honey carries a bit of honeycomb 
into the woods. When a bee settles on it 
to extract honey, he sprinkles flour on her 
so that he can mark her flight easily. After 
a number of these powdered insects have 
established a line leading in a definite di¬ 
rection into the woods, the hunter seats 
himself in a new position some distance 
at one side, and establishes a new line of 
direction. Where these lines seem to 
cross he expects to find bees going in and 
out of a tiny hole high up, it may be, 
in some old tree. First he frightens the 
bees by smoke. They think their house 
is going to be burned, so they fill them¬ 
selves with honey, and are no longer 
“cross.” Then he fells the tree, cuts open 
the cavity, and carries the honey home. 

Various locations have been celebrated 
for honey. The promised Canaan was a 
“land flowing with milk and honey.” 
Mount Hymettus in Greece, and Sicily 
were celebrated among the ancients. As 
previously stated our choicest strains of 
bees come from the Apennines of Italy. 
The honey of Switzerland is famous for 
clearness and purity. The Scotch carry 
their beehives to the mountains for a few 
weeks when the heather is in bloom. 

A belief, deep seated in Greek, Roman, 
and medieval superstition, to the effect 
that, in addition to ordinary methods of 
reproduction, honey bees sprang by spon¬ 
taneous generation from the carcasses of 
dead animals, particularly of oxen, is now 
thought to have had this foundation. A 
fly with much the appearance of a bee, 
only a little larger and having one pair 
of wings, is hatched from a rattailed mag¬ 
got that infests carcasses. It has been 
suggested that the supposed bees were 
newly produced flies of this sort. 


By the census of 1920 there were in the 
United States 3,467,396 hives of bees, 
allocated by geographic divisions as 


follows: 

New England. 41,073 

Middle Atlantic. 262,728 

East North Central. 556,344 

West North Central. 497,471 

South Atlantic. 613,171 

East South Central. 585,323 

West South Central. 422,492 

Mountain . 206,005 

Pacific . 282,789 


The amount of honey produced in 1920 
was 55,814,890 pounds valued at $14,280,- 
153, and of wax, 820,529 pounds valued 
at $5,992,083. The following states, in 
the order named, reported the largest num¬ 
ber of hives: Texas, Tennessee, Cali¬ 
fornia, North Carolina, Illinois, Missouri, 
Kentucky and Alabama. In 1919 the fol¬ 
lowing six states reported the greatest 
amount of honey produced: California, 
5,501,738 pounds; Texas, 5,026,095 
pounds; New York, 3,223,323 pounds; 
Iowa, 2,840,025 pounds; Wisconsin, 
2,676,683 pounds; and Colorado, 2,493,950 
pounds. 

In the comparison of the fourteenth with 
the thirteenth census of the United States 
a slight increase in the production of honey 
is noted for 1920 over 1910. In the latter 
year 55,000,000 pounds were produced. 

The value of the 3,467,396 hives of bees 
reported in the United States in 1920 was 
$16,841,353, this being greater by more 
than $6,000,000 than the value of the 373,- 
000,000 head of poultry reported in the 
same year. 

Despite the large production of honey 
and wax in the United States, large quan¬ 
tities of each of these products are im¬ 
ported each year. The introduction of 
scientific methods into apiculture, and the 
dissemination of knowledge pertaining to 
the industry, however, bids fair to increase 
the production totals. The modern bee 
keeper studies his workers with as much 
diligence as does the stock raiser his 
animals. Diseases that might ravage so 
homogeneous a unit as the befe colony are 
investigated with a view to eradication, 
and hives are constructed with as much 
care, comparatively, as are dairy barns. See 
Ant; Wasp. 











BEECH—BEECHER 


Beech, a handsome, well known forest 
tree. The American beech is found from 
Texas and Wisconsin to Florida and No¬ 
va Scotia. It is closely related to the 
chestnut. The beech is preeminently a 
forest tree, growing to a height of 80 or 
100 feet. The early settlers along the 
Ohio had tremendous work to clear off 
the beech forests. The stumps soon de¬ 
cay and the soil ofi a beech grove is of 
the richest. The European beech grows 
readily to a height of 100 to 120 feet, and 
is a magnificent park tree, “the warlike 
beech,” Spenser calls it; but it branches 
too soon to have a trunk equal to that of 
the American beech. Blue beech is not a 
beech at all, but a birch, and a relative of 
the ironwood or hop hornbeam. Beech nuts 
are of a triangular shape and about the 
size of peas. They are a favorite food of 
swine, bears, squirrels, and many wild 
animals. Daniel Boone and the settlers 
of Kentucky knew where to find bears and 
wild turkeys when beech mast was ripe. 
Buckwheat or “beech wheat,” as it should 
be called, is so named from the resem¬ 
blance of its kernel to a beech nut. Beech 
wood makes excellent fuel, ranking with 
hickory and maple. The timber makes ex¬ 
cellent handles for tools. The lumber 
does not last well in exposed situations, 
but is enduring under water. It makes 
excellent material for dams, watermills, 
sluiceways, etc. As the wood is without 
odor and is not subject to checking, it is 
much used for the wooden boats in which 
grocers sell butter, pickles, and many oth- 
cr articles. 

Beecher, Henry Ward (1813-1887), 
an American clergyman. He was born at 
Litchfield, Connecticut, June 24, 1813, and 
died at Brooklyn, New York, March 8, 
1887. He was a member of the famous 
Beecher family. The father, Dr. Lyman 
Beecher, was instrumental in the found¬ 
ing of Lane Seminary at Cincinnati, and 
was one of the most influential clergymen 
of his day. He was the father of thirteen 
children,' including Harriet Beecher 
Stowe, Isabella Beecher, Henry Ward 
Beecher, and seven other clergymen. He 
was credited with being the father of 


more brains than any other man in Ameri¬ 
ca.” 

Henry Ward was a shy boy, and wanted 
to go to sea. After graduating from Am¬ 
herst and studying theology at Lane, he 
edited an anti-slavery paper in Cincin¬ 
nati. He was pastor at West Sutton, 
Massachusetts, and then at Indianapolis. 
In 1847 he accepted the pastorate of 
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, with a roll 
of but nine members. Under his charge, 
the church became one of the largest and 
most noted in the United States. 

Mr. Beecher had a reputation as a pul¬ 
pit and platform orator second to none. 
He ranked with Spurgeon and Talmage 
in ability, but added to their fervent elo¬ 
quence an element of culture and scholar¬ 
ship that they did not possess. During 
the political struggle that preceded the 
Civil War, Beecher agreed in politics with 
Abraham Lincoln that slavery should be 
unmolested in the territory it then occu¬ 
pied, but should not be allowed to expand. 
He spoke so often and so powerfully 
against slavery, however, that he was 
classed by the Southern leaders with Gar¬ 
rison and Wendell Phillips, and was hated 
thoroughly as a black abolitionist. Dur¬ 
ing the Civil War, he undertook a series 
of lectures in England with a view to 
creating sentiment for the North. His ex¬ 
perience in Manchester before an immense 
audience of mill hands, who had been 
thrown out of work because Southern cot¬ 
ton could not be obtained, is one of the 
most remarkable instances of oratorial 
pluck and endurance on record. The 
workmen hooted at him, and attempted to 
yell him down, but Beecher felt that he 
stood before the audience as the represent¬ 
ative of the American flag. He held on, 
appealing to the Englishman’s love of fair 
play, until he won their attention, and 
told them what he believed to be the mer¬ 
its of the great contest then carried on 
between the two sections of the American 
Union. 

He supported President Johnson in his 
policy of reconstruction, took part in the 
Greeley movement against Grant’s second 
term, and voted for Cleveland in 1884. 


BEECHER—BEER 


He was a constant advocate of free trade 
and of suffrage for women. 

Mr. Beecher was a contributor to the 
Independent for twenty years, and at one 
time acted as its editor. He founded the 
Christian Union , now known as the Out¬ 
look, and was for a long time a contribu¬ 
tor to the Ledger. His works fill many 
separate volumes, but have not been 
brought together in a uniform edition. 

See Stowe. 

Beecher, Lyman (1775-1863), an 
American theologian, born at New Haven, 
Conn., was graduated from Yale University 
in 1797, and became pastor of the Presby¬ 
terian church of East Hampton, L. I., in 
1798. Dr. Beecher’s sermon on the death 
of Alexander Hamilton at the hands of 
Aaron Burr in 1804 won him immediate 
fame. He was soon known as one of the 
leading preachers of the country. A half 
dozen of his sermons against intemperance 
were widely read in America and England, 
and were even translated into foreign lan¬ 
guages. In 1826, he became pastor of the 
Hanover Street Congregational church of 
Boston, and in 1832 accepted the presi¬ 
dency of the Lane Theological Seminary, 
near Cincinnati, Ohio. He held the office 
for 20 years, during 10 of which he was 
also the pastor of the Second Presbyterian 
Church in Cincinnati. When the Pres¬ 
byterian Church divided in 1838 Dr. 
Beecher adhered to the New School party. 
Resigning the presidency of Lane Semi¬ 
nary in 1852, he returned to Boston to 
prepare his works for publication, but his 
mental powers began to decline and he was 
forced to retire. 

Beef, the flesh of domestic cattle. The 
name was introduced into England by 
the Normans. It was spelled at first as 
in the last syllable of Front-de-Boeuf in 
Scott’s Ivanhoe. All qualities coitsidered, 
beef is the most desirable kind of meat. If 
mankind were restricted to one kind of 
meat, the choice would undoubtedly be 
beef. 

The United States is the greatest pro¬ 
ducer of prime beef among the nations, 
and in the United States and Canada the 
consumption per capita is greater than in 
any other country. England is next in 


order as a beef consumer, and France, 
though exact figures are not available, 
probably follows England. As producers, 
Argentina and Australia have lately come 
to the fore. In 1921 the United States 
produced 2,338,000 tons of beef, consid¬ 
erably less than she produced in either 
1919 or 1920. In the same year the United 
States exports of beef were 25,000 tons, 
a great falling off from the period between 
1914-19, when the United States was sup¬ 
plying the allies. 

Canadian Production. This was, in 
1920: 

150,000 tons sold fresh, worth about $60,000,000 

5,000 tons, salted. 9,000,000 

There was a marked falling of from 
these figures in 1921, due to the general 
business depression. 

Beer, a malt beverage. It is fermented 
but not distilled, belonging in this respect 
to the same class as ale, stout, and porter. 
It is composed largely of water and con¬ 
tains starch, sugars, the bitter principle 
of hops, and about four per cent of alco¬ 
hol. Beer is made from wheat or any of 
the cereals, but chiefly from barley. 

In the simplest language malting is 
sprouting the grain. Barley is steeped in 
water for about two days; then heaped 
up in small piles on a floor in a moist, 
warm room to sprout. The piles are 
shoveled over frequently to avoid spoil¬ 
ing, and the grain is watched with solici¬ 
tude until, at the end of four or five days, 
tiny hair-like roots appear. The growth 
is then checked by drying promptly in a 
kiln until the grain is dry and brittle. The 
malt, as it is now called, is tumbled about 
and put through a blower or fanning mill 
to remove dust, shrunken kernels, and roots. 

In brewing the malt is first crushed to 
liberate the starch grains. The ground 
malt is then cooked into a mash. For va¬ 
rious reasons, to reduce cost of production 
and to make a lighter color of beer, a sep¬ 
arate mash, possibly three times as great, 
is made of unmalted rice or corn grits, 
corn meal, corn starch, possibly potato 
starch. The two mashes are then run to¬ 
gether and boiled in an abundance of 
water in large tubs. The process started 
in the sprouting of the malt continues to 



BEET 


convert starch, not only of the malt, but 
also of the corn products, into sugar. 
After various periods of boiling, stewing, 
stirring, and settling, best known to the 
brewer, the liquid, now called wort, is 
drawn off from the mash into kettles. The 
mash is washed pretty thoroughly for 
wort and the leavings, including the hulls 
of the original barley, are sold for feed. 
Other cheapening but not undesirable 
materials are usually added to the wort, 
particularly sugar, glucose, and molasses. 
Hops, a very important ingredient, are 
now added, for, it is said, three distinct 
purposes. The tannin clarifies the wort 
by coagulating the albumen; the hop oil 
gives the beer a certain hop aroma; and 
the hop resin gives a bitter taste supposed 
to be desirable. 

Previous to the adoption of the XVIII 
Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture 
and sale of spirituous and malt liquors 
after January 1, 1920, the brewing indus¬ 
try in the United States had reached enor¬ 
mous proportions, being exceeded by that 
of Germany and the United Kingdom 
only. Consumption of malt liquors in the 
United States was 2,056,407,108 gallons 
in 1914, or 20.54 gallons per capita. It 
was reduced to 1,556,378,953 gallons, or 
14.59 per capita, in 1918, during the war 
period; and under prohibition, was reduced 
to 285,798,939 gallons in 1921, or 2.61 
gallons per capita of population. Much 
beer is still illicitly brewed and sold, but 
the manufacture and sale of beer contain¬ 
ing more than one-half of one per cent of 
alcohol is expressely prohibited by Act of 
Congress (the Volstead Law). 

In Canada the laws of the various prov¬ 
inces differ as to the manufacture and sale 
of beer, which is permitted, for instance, 
in Quebec and British Columbia, but pro¬ 
hibited in Ontario, except for medicinal 
purposes. Under the Canada Temperance 
Act of 1920, as amended in 1922, the sale 
in or exportation out of each province of 
all intoxicating liquors is restricted to 
brewers and distillers duly licensed by the 
dominion. But the provisions of the Do¬ 
minion Act are applicable to each province 
only upon its own request, so that in 
Canada the status is practically that of 


provincial local option. There are, as a 
rule, no restrictions on the brewing of beer 
at home for family use. 

Beet, a well known vegetable belong¬ 
ing to the pigweed family. The original 
beet still grows wild in southern Europe 
and in parts of Asia. From it have been de¬ 
veloped the garden beet, the chard, the 
mangel, and the sugar beet. The original 
beet had a slender root. The top was 
used for greens. The root has developed 
under cultivation. The chards were cul¬ 
tivated by the Greeks over 2,000 years 
ago. The development of table beets has 
gone on for many centuries. The rich, 
red, smooth, tender, shapely beet of today 
is the result of planting the seed of the 
beet in rich garden soil century after cen¬ 
tury. 

The coarser, unimproved varieties of 
beets are known as mangels. Seeds were 
brought from England by the earliest 
colonists. Mangels are still raised as a 
standard field crop for feeding cattle. 
Sheep do well on sliced mangels. A man¬ 
gel clapped on a long nail in the wall of 
the chicken house affords an excellent 
winter diversion for laying hens. 

All varieties of beets are biennial. Like 
turnips the root of one year produces seed 
the second year and then dies. In all 
cold countries it is necessary to pull the 
seed beets and store them in a dry, cool, 
frost-proof cellar or root house. Owing 
to the higher cost of American labor, we 
import a large proportion of our beet seed 
from Europe. 

The discovery of sugar in the beet dates 
from 1747. Credit is due to a German 
chemist. No important commercial re¬ 
sults followed until experiments were re¬ 
newed under the direction of Napoleon, 
who ordered ten factories to be built in 
France. With the exception of Turkey, 
all European countries now produce beet 
sugar. More beet sugar is now produced 
than is made from cane. The world’s 
output for 1922 was 5,367,000 long 
tons, of which the United States 
produced 625,000. A number of at¬ 
tempts to set up beet sugar factories in 
the United States at Philadelphia, North¬ 
ampton, Massachusetts, and elsewhere, 


BEETHOVEN 


were unsuccessful. In 1869 the beet sug¬ 
ar industry was established at Alvarado, 
California. A wide strip of territory, ex¬ 
tending clear across the United States, has 
been found well suited to the production 
of sugar beets, and a large amount of 
American capital is now invested in the 
production of beet sugar. 

The difficulty of getting out the sugar 
without the red coloring matter led to the 
breeding of a beet from the lightest col¬ 
ored mangels. The present sugar beet is 
as white as a turnip. By planting the 
seeds of the sweetest beets, the yield of 
sugar has been increased from 100 pounds 
of sugar to the ton of beets in Napoleon’s 
factories to an average of perhaps 250 
pounds to the ton in 1908. 

Beet seed—ten to fifteen pounds to the 
acre—is sown in drills about the time of 
corn planting. The seed should be cov¬ 
ered about three-fourths of an inch. The 
drills should be about three feet apart, 
and the young plants should be thinned 
in the row to stand two to three feet 
apart, giving 5,000 to 7,000 beets to the 
acre. Rich clay loam soil seems best. The 
irrigated lands of the west yield famous 
crops. 

Beets are dug by a double shoe plow or 
lifter. The beets pass between the shoes 
and are elevated. They are then topped 
close by hand and thrown into heaps to 
wait convenience in hauling. Loading is 
done with forks. The railway sidings in 
beet countries are furnished with elevated 
platforms from which the farmer dumps 
his load of beets into a flat car. Freezing 
does no harm. In Minnesota beets go to 
market as hard as rocks. 

Arrived at the factory the roots are 
washed clean and sliced, this all by ma¬ 
chinery. The sugary juice is extracted 
by soaking the pulp in water that is 
changed frequently. It is treated with 
limewater and sulphur. It is filtered and 
evaporated, purified and bleached. The 
sugar is finally sacked and sent to market. 
The discarded pulp is sold for stock food. 

In the decade 1910-20, the peak year 
for beet sugar production was 1913-14, 
when the world’s total was 8,929,000 tons. 
With the outbreak of the World War 


European production fell off, and has not 
since attained its pre-war status. There 
were in 1919 85 beet sugar refineries in 
the United States, allocated as follows: 
16 each in Michigan and Utah; 14 in 
Colorado; 10 in California; 8 in Idaho; 
5 in Ohio; 4 each in Nebraska and Wis¬ 
consin, and 1 each in Indiana, Illinois, 
Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Wyo¬ 
ming and Washington. The United States 
imports more sugar than 300 factories run¬ 
ning continuously could supply. 

Beethoven, ba'to-ven, Ludwig van 
(1770-1827), a German musician, born at 
Bonn. He was of Dutch descent, hence 
the van. His father, a tenor singer in the 
elector’s chapel, is said to have whipped 
Beethoven at the age of five to make him 
practice. At thirteen the lad published 
a volume of musical compositions. See¬ 
ing his precocity, the elector of Cologne 
sent Beethoven to Vienna to enjoy the in¬ 
struction of Haydn, who made him fa¬ 
miliar with the music of Handel and Mo¬ 
zart. He became attached to Vienna and 
remained there the greater part of his life. 
He held various positions, such as chapel 
master, and drew a liberal pension. He 
was naturally eccentric. Dyspepsia made 
a short temper worse. A growing deaf¬ 
ness rendered him incapable of conduct¬ 
ing concerts, and, finally, total deafness 
drove him out of society. Like all musi¬ 
cians he was sensitive and fond of praise. 
In his later years he became morose. He 
remained single all his life. Singular 
habits of abusing his friends and servants 
by spells rendered it difficult for him to 
maintain a home. He was a man of short 
stature, and had long hair and black, pierc¬ 
ing eyes. 

Beethoven’s compositions are numerous 
and are regarded as the works of a genius. 
He worked by no rule, but seemed to com¬ 
pose offhand under the stress of his feel¬ 
ings. Deafness and a bluntness of char¬ 
acter led him to hold aloof from society 
and wander about in byways alone. Re¬ 
turning from these trips, he was wont to 
jot down his feelings in musical notation 
to be elaborated later. Nevertheless he 
wrote with care. One of his notebooks 
shows that he revised one piece eighteen 


BEETLE 


times. Many critics deem him the great¬ 
est of musical composers. Others say he 
is preeminent in orchestral music only. 
He wrote also for the voice, for the piano, 
for the violin, and for the cello. He wrote 
songs, symphonies, operas, sonatas, and 
other forms familiar to the student of 
music. 

One of Beethoven’s most popular com¬ 
positions is the Moonlight Sonata. A 
story is told concerning its production 
which gives no doubt a clue to the real 
nature to be found beneath the musician’s 
rough exterior. While walking one moon¬ 
light evening in a poor quarter of the 
city of Bonn, the musician was led to 
enter a very humble dwelling by hearing 
the strains of one of his own compositions. 
He discovered the performer to be a blind 
girl living with her brother in poverty. 
Beethoven seated himself at the old-fash¬ 
ioned harpsichord, and for a long time 
delighted the blind girl with his playing. 
At last the light of the single candle in the 
room flickered and went out. The shutters 
were thrown open, and there, inspired by 
the beautiful moonlight and the humble 
listener to whom he was giving so much 
happiness, Beethoven improvised his 
Moonlight Sonata. 

Beetle, a large order of insects, in¬ 
cluding eighty American families and 11,- 
000 species. Beetles may be distinguished 
from bugs by the wings. Both bugs and 
beetles have two pairs of wings. The 
forward or outer pair of the bug are horny 
with gauzy tips that overlap on the back. 
The outer pair of the beetle are heavy 
and horny throughout, and meet in a 
straight line along the back. In fact the 
horny outside wing covers of the beetle 
are not wings at all, but horny scales un¬ 
der which a pair of fine, thin wings are 
folded with occasional vestiges of front 
wings. When the beetle desires to fly it 
raises its wing covers, spreads its wide, 
thin wings, and sails away, frequently 
with a humming or whirring noise. Some 
beetles are poor flyers. As a rule, the 
better a runner, the poorer a flyer it is. 
The mouth parts are strong. The beetle 
has six legs and two usually well devel¬ 
oped antennae. 


The life of the beetle consists of four 
stages: the egg, the larva or grub, the 
pupa, and the developed insect. The fe¬ 
male beetle deposits her egg where she 
thinks there will be an abundance of food. 
From the egg comes a grub, of which the 
grub-worms, large and small, of manure 
piles are familiar examples. They are 
grubs, not worms. They correspond to 
caterpillars and have six stiff legs. The 
sole business of the grub is to eat and 
grow. As it grows, it sheds its skin every 
now and then for a new and larger one. 
When it has its size, which it may attain 
in a few weeks or years according to the 
species, it builds itself a rude shelter of 
bits of wood, or a case of silk, and goes 
into a state of rest, the pupa stage, in 
which the folded legs and wings of the 
beetle may be seen. It then remains 
quiet until the full-sized beetle is ready 
to break forth, hunt food, spread its 
wings, and lay new eggs. 

There are many interesting beetle fami¬ 
lies. On hot, bright days bronze and 
green fellows, beautifully marked with 
yellow, spring from the dusty road and 
fly a few rods ahead, turning as they 
light, so as to sit with an eye on the trav¬ 
eler. These are tiger beetles. 

The ground beetles have large, plump, 
green, blue, violet, brown, and spotted, 
but mostly black bodies and long, slender 
feelers. One small sort has a magazine 
of disagreeable fluid at the rear of its 
abdomen which it flings into the face of 
an astonished enemy. The fluid fills the 
air with smoke, under cover of which the 
little soldier scuttles away. 

Black, shining, diving beetles hang 
head downward at the surface of quiet 
pools watching for insects to eat. Like 
other insects, they breathe through tubes 
or nostrils on their sides. They can carry 
a lot of air to breathe imprisoned under 
their wing covers. They are not incon¬ 
venienced by diving. 

Whirligig beetles seem to spend most of 
their time whirling around, sometimes 
quite a swarm of them, on the surface of 
quiet water. They dive and they fly from 
one pool to another, but depend rather on 
their agility when one tries to catch them. 


BEGONIA—BELFAST 


The carrion beetles include the burying 
beetles, large, stout, cylindrical fellows 
with reddish spots. When a pair of these 
humming about find a dead mouse or oth¬ 
er carrion, which they are supposed to de¬ 
tect for a long distance, they light and go 
to work digging away the earth beneath, 
until the animal is quite buried in a pit. 
The female then lays her eggs in the ani¬ 
mal. Comstock states that a pair of these 
beetles will roll a rat several feet, if need 
be, to find a spot suitable for burying. 

Quite a number of species make trou¬ 
ble. The carpet beetle fills carpets with 
grubs; the pale raspberry beetle covers 
the raspberry leaves with small white 
grubs. Apple tree borers ruin an orchard. 
The cigarette beetle infests tobacco fac¬ 
tories. The ship-timber beetle honeycombs 
wooden ships. The rose beetle destroys 
our choicest rosebuds. The meal worm 
plagues the miller. The sugar-cane beetle 
works its way into the base of sugar-cane 
and is a serious pest in Louisiana. The 
maple, the elm, the hickory, the willow, 
the oak, and nearly every other tree has 
its beetle that bores in the twigs and de¬ 
posits grub-producing eggs from the later 
effects of which the twigs and even trees 
die. 

Beetles are interesting but hardly at¬ 
tractive. As an order they are hostile to 
the fruit grower. Longfellow, in defend¬ 
ing the cause of birds, audacious fruit 
thieves, takes this view: 

Even the blackest of them all, the crow, 

Renders good service as your man-at-arms, 

Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail, 

And crying havoc on the sluggard snail. 

See Insects; Bug; Potato Beetle. 

Begonia, be-go'm-a, a large group of 
juicy flowering plants, known also as ele¬ 
phant’s ear, and beefsteak geranium. There 
are about 300 species chiefly of tropical 
America, although some species are found 
in Asia and South Africa. The first be¬ 
gonia known in England, was introduced 
in 1777. Florists recognize four groups: 
the fibrous-rooted or winter-flowering; the 
semi-tuberous; the tuberous or summer- 
flowering ; and the rex or ornamental¬ 
leaved. Begonias may be propagated with¬ 
out difficulty by leaf or stem cuttings. 


Belasco, David (1859- ), American 

playwright and producer, made his first 
appearance on the stage at the age of 
fifteen. For a time he was stage manager 
of the Madison Square Theatre, New York. 
His dramatic works include Zaza, The Girl 
of the Golden West, Naughty Anthony , 
The Darling of the Gods, The Son-Daugh¬ 
ter, The Return of Peter Grimm, and a 
number of other plays and adaptations. 
He is very successful as a manager. 

Behring Strait. See Behring Sea. 

Beirut, ba'rdot, the chief seaport of 
Syria which now forms a part of the new 
state of Palestine. It is situated on a bay 
near the middle of the eastern coast of the 
Mediterranean. A railroad leads inland 
over the Lebanon Mountains to Damascus. 
During the past fifty years Beirut has 
grown from a town of 10,000 to a com¬ 
mercial city of 120,000 people. The United 
States maintains a consul at Beirut, and 
various American and European societies 
support mission stations. The exports are 
silk, rugs, grain, olive oil, tobacco, wool. 

Belfast, the chief commercial and man¬ 
ufacturing city of Ireland. It is situated 
at the head of a bay on the northeast 
coast of the island, and is nearer to Glas¬ 
gow than to Liverpool. The country round 
about is strongly Protestant. Belfast is 
scarcely less Presbyterian than is Glasgow. 

It is situated on low ground made by the . 
alluvial deposits of a small river. As late 
as 1612 it consisted of 120 mud huts 
thatched with straw, so that it did not 
have much the start of Boston. Its pres¬ 
ent population is about two-thirds as great 
as that of Boston. The country round 
about is productive, and insures the city 
a thriving trade. The region is noted for 
the production of a superior quality of 
flax, which has made Belfast the leading 
linen city of the world. Immense facto¬ 
ries are engaged in flax spinning and in 
linen weaving. Oil mills, distilleries, 
flouring mills, shipyards, foundries, saw¬ 
mills, printing offices, manufactories of felt 
and tobacco, and rope works add to the 
business interests of the city. Commercially 
it is the fifth city in the United Kingdom. 
The city is built of brick. The streets 
are spacious and well kept. Five bridges 





BELGIAN CONGO 


span the river. There are evidences of 
commercial thrift, churchgoing, and educa¬ 
tion on every hand, as well as signs of 
vagabondage and poverty; but the antiq¬ 
uities for which the tourist looks in a Eu¬ 
ropean city are wanting. There are several 
educational institutions including Queens’ 
College and the Presbyterian Theological 
College. See Ireland; Linen. 

Belgian Congo, an African colony of 
Belgium. The area is estimated at 909,654 
square miles, with a Bantu population of 
about 393,000. 

The history of the so-called Congo Free 
State is interesting. In 1876 Leopold II, 
king of Belgium, was eager “to get into 
the African game.” He founded the In¬ 
ternational African Association, subcom¬ 
mittees of which were presided over by the 
Prince of Wales for England, the Crown 
Prince for Germany, the king’s brother 
for Italy, M. de Lesseps for France, and 
the king himself for Belgium. Large sums 
of money were subscribed, and exploring 
stations were established in the Lake Tan¬ 
ganyika region. When, in 1877, Stanley 
appeared on the Atlantic coast with the 
story of the Congo River, King Leopold 
saw, he thought, an opportunity to acquire 
African territory. Acting ostensibly for 
the association, but using his own money, 
Leopold employed Stanley for five years 
in visiting the tribes of the Congo Valley, 
and in establishing trading posts. During 
this period, Stanley secured 4,000 conces¬ 
sions of territory from native chiefs. Over 
2,000 chiefs placed their marks on these 
documents. Light steamers in “knock¬ 
down” were taken up the Congo as far 
as seagoing ships could navigate. They 
were then carried by natives around the 
cataracts and were put together and set 
afloat in Stanley Pool. 

In this way, a vast extent of territory 
was taken possession of in a peaceable man¬ 
ner, with the utmost goodwill of the sim¬ 
ple natives. A little later, the “Congo 
Association,” in reality Leopold’s em¬ 
ployes, adopted a flag having a gold star 
and a blue ground, and applied to the 
powers for recognition as an independent 
state. The diplomatic situation was a 
very peculiar one. A trading association 


without definite boundaries, or standing as 
a nation, asked for recognition and got it. 
By the Treaty of Berlin, signed 1885, the 
Congo Independent State was placed un¬ 
der protection of Leopold. From this date 
on, Leopold considered the Congo Valley 
a personal possession. The Belgian gov¬ 
ernment took $2,000,000 worth of shares 
in a railway, 250 miles long, with which 
to connect the lower part of the river with 
Stanley Pool, and in 1890 made a further 
loan of $5,000,000 to the Independent 
State. 

The nations were well pleased for a 
time. The world at large was glad to see 
the territory tied up so that it could not 
be grasped by any of the larger powers. 
The term, “Independent State,” sounded 
well. No one was particularly jealous 
of Leopold. Rumors, however, began to 
creep out that the king was administering 
the state for revenue only, and that his 
agents and emissaries, resorting to meas¬ 
ures of the utmost cruelty, were enslaving 
the negroes and forcing them to bring for¬ 
est products to the various river ports. 
The affair was the subject of more or less 
diplomatic correspondence. In 1908 the 
estate was annexed to Belgium by a legis¬ 
lative act approved by the king. Ger¬ 
many, and later, the other powers, gave 
formal consent. 

By the Paris terms a part of German 
East Africa is ceded to Belgium, thus 
enlarging the resources of the Congo Free 
State. As stated, the population of Belgian 
Congo is above 15,000,000. In January, 
1921, the population of European em¬ 
ployes numbered 8,221. Forty-seven hun¬ 
dred of these were Belgians. The rest 
were English, Portuguese, Swedes, Norwe¬ 
gians, Americans, Italians, Danes, Dutch, 
Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Russians. 
There are 149 missions and 1,150 mission¬ 
aries, rather more than half of whom are 
Catholics. There are three agricultural 
colonies where children are taught the 
rudiments of reading and agriculture. 

The exports are chiefly forest products, 
including rubber, ivory, palm nuts, palm 
oil, and white copal. Large sections are 
well adapted to the cultivation of coffee 
and cocoa. Plantations of rubber have 


BELGIUM 


been established. Tobacco is grown by the 
natives around their villages. Gold, tin, 
and copper are also exported. The ex¬ 
portation of diamonds in 1920 was 274,103 
carats. In 1920 the exports were valued 
at $60,000,000. In the same year, arms, 
ammunition, ships, machinery, liquors, gro¬ 
ceries, cotton cloth, clothing, glassware and 
cutlery to the value of $45,000,000 were 
imported. 

There are seventeen steamers in the ocean 
section of the Congo. Forty-six ply on the 
Upper Congo. There are about 2,663 
miles of railway with 1,000 miles under 
construction. It is proposed to unite the 
mouth of the Congo with the great lakes 
of Central Africa. The Congo is included 
in the Postal Union. Boma, at the head 
of deep sea navigation, is the capital. 
There are 2,085 miles of telegraph line. 
Belgian money is current on the lower part 
of the river. Among the forest tribes 
barter prevails, though bits of brass and 
cowry shells serve as a sort of currency. 

Belgium, a small country of Western 
Europe, bounded on the north by Holland, 
on the northwest by the North Sea, on the 
south and west by France, and on the east 
by Germany and the Duchy of Luxem¬ 
bourg. The coast line of Belgium meas- 
ures 42 miles; it has an area of 11,744 
square miles, and a population of 7,684,272. 
Her pre-war area and population were 
somewhat smaller than at present, for by 
the Treaty of Versailles she was ceded by 
Germany the districts of Eupen and Mal- 
medy, having an area of 384 square miles 
and 64,520 inhabitants. The capital is 
Brussels. 

Belgium slopes northward toward the 
North Sea as a broad plain. The south¬ 
ern part is quite rugged and elevated, the 
Ardennes continuing into this part of Bel¬ 
gium from France. The North Sea regions 
are so low that embankments are erected 
to keep the sea out. Belgium is more 
favored in the matter of waterways than 
any other European country. The prin¬ 
cipal rivers are the Scheldt, with its tribu¬ 
tary the Lys; the Meuse, with its tributary 
the Sambre; and the Yser, Demer, Dender, 
Great and Little Nethe, Dyle, Darme, and 
Ambleve. 


Industries. The industrial life of Bel¬ 
gium depends upon mining and agricul¬ 
ture chiefly, and upon the metal and textile 
industries. Agriculture is of the intensive 
rather than extensive kind, Belgium obtain¬ 
ing a greater output per acre of some 
crops than any other country on the con¬ 
tinent. The invasion of this peaceable and 
intelligent little country by the German 
forces resulted in an almost complete 
wrecking of her industrial plants, but 
nearly complete industrial rehabilitation has 
since been attained. The chief industry of 
Flanders, and one of the oldest in Bel¬ 
gium, is the linen industry. The name of 
Brussels, in the textile marts of the west¬ 
ern world, is always associated with lace. 
Mons, Namur, Ghent, Liege and Charleroi 
are the principal centers of the metal in¬ 
dustries. Glass manufacture is also highly 
developed. 

Commerce. Belgium is one of the chief 
trading countries of the world. This fact 
is the more noteworthy when her size and 
population are considered. The chief arti¬ 
cles of import are food and raw material, 
while exports consist of manufactured 
goods of infinite variety. She exported ex¬ 
tensively into Germany before the war, but 
trade in that direction has since declined. 
Her transportation facilities are an im¬ 
portant factor in her trade relations. She 
has more miles of railway per square mile 
than any other country in the world, and 
1,360 miles of navigable waterways. 

Government. Belgium is a constitu¬ 
tional, representative, hereditary monarchy, 
and her national existence dates back to 
50 B. C. Absolutely equal suffrage ob¬ 
tains. Legislative power is vested in the 
king, a senate and a house of representa¬ 
tives. Senators are elected for four years, 
a part of them directly by the people, and 
the remainder by the provincial council. 
Representatives are chosen by direct vote 
of the people, one for every 40,000 inhabi¬ 
tants. Each of the nine Belgian provinces 
is under the authority of a governor, ap¬ 
pointed by the crown, and a provincial 
council elected by vote of the people. The 
commune is the unit of local government; 
and both province and commune enjoy con¬ 
siderable autonomy. 



BELGIUM 


Education. School attendance in Bel¬ 
gium is compulsory between the ages of six 
and fourteen. Each commune must have 
at least one primary school, maintained by 
the commune with state and provincial aid. 
Secondary education is provided for by 
148 schools; there are 99 normal schools, 

6 commercial high schools, a state agricul¬ 
tural institute, a state veterinary school, the 
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and 4 uni¬ 
versities ; those at Ghent and Liege are 
state institutions, while those at Brussels 
and Louvain are free. Groups of technical 
schools are attached to the universities. 

History. The Kingdom of Belgium 
formed itself into an independent state in 

1830, having from 1815 been a part of the 
Netherlands. The secession was decreed 
on October 4, 1830, by a Provisional Gov¬ 
ernment, established in consequence of a 
revolution which broke out at Brussels on 
August 25, 1830. A National Congress 
elected Prince Leopold, of Saxe-Coburg, 
King of the Belgians on June 4, 1831; he 
ascended the throne July 21, 1831. On 
his death in 1865 he was succeeded by his 
son, Leopold II., who reigned until 1909. 

By the Treaty of London, November 15, 

1831, the neutrality of Belgium was guar¬ 
anteed by Austria, Russia, Great Britain 
and Prussia. It was not until after the 
signing of the Treaty of London, April 19, 
1839, which established peace between 
King Leopold I. and the King of the Neth¬ 
erlands, that all the states of Europe rec¬ 
ognized the Kingdom of Belgium. 

In pursuance of her declaration of war 
against France, Germany invaded Belgium 
in 1914 in order to reach France from the 
north. Heroic resistance was offered by 
the Belgians, who even in Caesar’s time 
were known for their fighting qualities, but 
the resistance was beaten down by the 
Germans. The seat of government was 
removed from Brussels to Antwerp, and 
was later transferred onto French soil, at 
Havre. Systematic destruction of life and 
property followed the overrunning of the 
country by the invader. Foodstuffs and 
machinery were requisitioned or destroyed, 
and thousands of Belgian workmen were 
deported to Germany. On November 19, 
1918, the king again entered Brussels after 


four years of the bitterest fighting. By the 
terms of the Peace Treaty, Germany was 
compelled to consent to the abrogation of 
the Treaty of 1839, by which Belgium be¬ 
came a neutral state. Germany was re¬ 
quired to give options over ten years for 
delivery of 8,000,000 tons of coal; to 
repay all sums borrowed by Belgium from 
her allies from August, 1914, to Novem¬ 
ber 11, 1918; to deliver to Belgium live 
stock, machinery, etc., to the value of 
$800,000,000; and to restore certain art 
treasures. Belgium was granted priority 
claim on the payment of $500,000,000 from 
the German indemnities. 

Statistics. The following statistics 
are the latest to be had from trustworthy 
sources: 


Land area, square miles. 11,744 

Forest area, acres. 1,500,000 

Population (1920). 7,684,272 

Chief Cities: 

Brussels . 684,870 

Antwerp . 333,882 

Ghent . 165,910 

Liege . 165,117 

Mechlin . 60,118 

Bruges . 54,308 

Ostend . 48,073 

Verviers . 43,027 

Louvain . 39,450 

Seraing . 36,954 

Courtrai . 36,767 

Alost . 36,160 

Number of provinces. 9 

Members of state senate. 153 

Members of house of representa¬ 
tives . 186 

National revenue.$ 488,902,000 

Bonded indebtedness.$5,047,388,000 

Farm area, acres. 7,362,760 

Improved land, acres. 4,021,245 

Oats, bushels. 30,251,000 

Wheat, bushels. 11,523,000 

Potatoes, bushels. 93,329,000 

Barley, bushels. 3,939,000 

Sugar beets, short tons. 267,859 

Tobacco, pounds. 13,490,000 

Domestic animals: 

Horses . 205,152 

Cattle .. 1,487,361 

Swine . 976,643 

Wrought iron, tons. 216,700 

Crude zinc, tons. 102,000 

Steel, tons. 1,530,000 

Pig iron, tons. 1,408,000 

Coal mined, tons. 28,000,000 

Coke, tons. 22,000,000 

Briquettes, tons. 3,500,000 

Lead, tons. 16,040 

Sugar, tons. 350,000 














































BELGIUM—BELISARIUS 


Imports .$2,000,000,000 

Exports .$1,000,000,000 

Miles of railway. 5,600 

Number of schools. 11,325 

Pupils enrolled. 1,166,237 

Belgium, Commission for Relief in, 
an international organization formed late 
in 1914 by the American and Spanish am¬ 
bassadors in London, the American and 
Spanish ministers at Brussels, the American 
ambassador at Berlin, and the American 
minister at The Hague, to care for civilians 
in the war-devastated districts of Belgium 
and Northern France. It was financed by 
government loans from Great Britain and 
France. The work provided for the feed¬ 
ing of the entire population of the occu¬ 
pied areas, and some 7,000 committees 
were created under the control of two cen¬ 
tral organizations: the Commission for Re¬ 
lief in Belgium, and the Comite National 
de Secours et d’Alimentation. Over 
3,000,000 tons of supplies were shipped 
and distributed. 

Belize, or British Honduras, a British 
colony on the Bay of Honduras, in the 
Caribbean Sea, and elswhere surrounded 
by Guatemala and Mexico. It forms the 
southeast part of the peninsula of Yucatan, 
and has an area of 8,592 miles. The river 
Belize traverses the central part of the 
country, and the Rio Hondo and the Sars- 
toon form respectively its northwestern and 
southern boundaries. 

The Cockcomb Mountains (4,000 feet) 
are the highest points, the land along the 
coast being low and swampy. 

The country has the fertility of the 
tropics and the high parts afford good 
pasturage. The chief exports are bananas, 
cedar, chicle, cocoanuts, mahogany, log¬ 
wood and Hawksbill shell. The principal 
imports are wearing apparel, boots and 
shoes, cattle, silk and cotton goods, drugs, 
chemicals and patent medicines, cutlery, 
machinery, food supplies, gasoline, kero¬ 
sene and spirits. 

There are a number of primary and sec¬ 
ondary schools in Belize, all of which are 
under denominational management and re¬ 
ceive no aid from the government. Tele¬ 
graph and telephone lines connect Belize 
with Corozal and Consejo on the coast, 
also with towns in the interior. The Royal 


See Brussels ; Bruges ; Antwerp ; 
Ghent; Netherlands. 

Belgrade, capital of Jugo-Slavia, for¬ 
merly of Servia, is situated on the Danube, 
midway between Vienna and the Black Sea. 
It occupies a position strongly fortified by 
nature. The citadel is built on a lofty 
promontory and is a sort of Gibraltar, 
commanding the pass through which travel 
up or down the river must go. For that 
reason it is the key to the upper Danube. 
Originally garrisoned by a- Roman legion, 
it has been fortified, stormed, surrendered, 
and ceded a score of times. Greeks, Turks, 
Austrians, and Hungarians have fought 
desperately for its possession. One of the 
most memorable sieges was conducted by 
Prince Eugene in 1717, when he took the 
citadel after he had defeated an army of 
200,000 Turks “under the walls of high 
Belgrade.” Since 1878 it has been the 
capital of an independent state. Its posi¬ 
tion has made it the center of communica¬ 
tion between the Upper Danube and the 
Black Sea region. Lines of steamers ply in 
both directions. The main railway of the 
Danube Valley passes through Belgrade on 
the way to Constantinople. The population 
in 1911 was reported at 120,000. The city 
has a large -wholesale and shipping busi¬ 
ness. The exports are chiefly grain, fruits, 
especially fresh plums, marmalade, meats, 
and live stock. Street railways, telephones, 
electric lights, waterworks, new buildings, 
and fine shops give the city a modern 
appearance. See Servia; Jugo-Slavia. 

Belisarius, bel-i-sa'ri-us (505-565), the 
greatest general of the Byzantine Empire, 
and the one to whom the Emperor 
Justinian owed the splendor of his reign. 
As a youth he served in a body guard of 
the emperor, who made him commander 
of his eastern army. He won a signal 
victory over the Persians in 530, and 
crushed a rebellion in Constantinople, sav¬ 
ing Justinian’s life in 532. He led 15,000 
mercenaries against the Vandals in Africa 
—an expedition avoided by every other 
imperial general,—and returned victorious. 
He overcame the Ostrogothic kingdom 
founded in Italy by Theodoric, with such 
display of military skill and daring that 
the Ostrogoths offered to make him emper- 







BELL 


or of the West. This honor Belisarius 
loyally rejected and returned to Constan¬ 
tinople, to be stripped of his honors and 
sentenced to death through the intrigues 
of his disloyal wife. Only by humbling 
himself before this wicked woman was he 
able to save his life. While in trouble at 
home the Goths reconquered Italy and 
Belisarius’ services were again required. 
With inadequate forces but with match¬ 
less skill he held the enemy at bay through 
five campaigns. Removed from command 
he lived quietly at Constantinople until 
an incursion of Bulgarian savages caused 
panic throughout the city. Then Belisari¬ 
us came once more to his country’s aid 
and repelled the enemy, but instead of 
rewards he was accused of conspiracy and 
imprisoned, stripped of honors and prop¬ 
erty. Justinian, though jealous of his 
loyal general, knew him innocent of trea¬ 
son and released him from prison. The 
history of his last years is uncertain, but 
it is probable that wealth and honor were 
restored to him. 

“Belisarius was merciful as a conqueror, stern 
as a disciplinarian, enterprising and wary as a 
general; while his courage, loyalty and forbear¬ 
ance seem to have been almost unsullied.” 

See Constantinople; Justinian. 

Bell, an open, cup-shaped, percussion 
instrument which yields a single dominant 
note. A bell is suspended usually mouth 
downward. A clapper usually hangs from 
the center and strikes first one side of the 
bell and then the other as the bell swings 
to and fro. Bronze bells have been found 
in the ruins of Nineveh. They were in use 
in India and China before they found 
their way into Europe. The Romans used 
bells for a number of purposes. Bells 
were carried and rung in processions, and 
were used to summon the public to the 
baths. One ancient author mentions a bell 
which rang in connection with a water 
clock to announce the passing of the hours. 

Church bells are mentioned in Rome 
as early as 400; in France 550; in Eng¬ 
land 680. Some of the oldest bells in Ire¬ 
land, Scotland, and Wales are quadrangu¬ 
lar and are made of iron plates riveted 
together. A four-sided bell of this sort 
is still shown at the old monastery of St. 


Gall, Switzerland. Bells were brought 
to their present shape and stage of perfec¬ 
tion in Holland by the middle of the sev¬ 
enteenth century. 

First class bell metal is composed of cop¬ 
per and tin, in the proportion of four to 
one. The thickness of the lips should be 
one-fifteenth of the bell’s diameter, and 
the height of the bell should be twelve 
times the thickness of the lip. Thus the 
proper proportions of a bell may be two 
inches for the thickness of the lip, thirty 
inches for the diameter of the bell, and 
twenty-four inches for its height. These 
proportions, as well as the graceful, in¬ 
ward curve and trumpet mouth, were all 
worked out by careful experimenting. 

The casting of a large bell is an art 
in itself. A drawing must first be made 
giving a cross section of the bell. A pair 
of compasses with two crooked legs is then 
made. The curve of one leg must corre¬ 
spond to the inside of the bell and the 
curve of the other leg must exactly fit the 
outside. A stake is then driven in the cen¬ 
ter of the so-called bell pit, and a small 
quantity of wood is piled around it. A 
hut of brick is built around the wood, out¬ 
side of which a puddling of clay mixed 
with hair is plastered on. The wooden 
compass before mentioned is pivoted on 
the top of the stake, and the leg which 
corresponds to the inside of the bell is 
swung around and around until the plaster 
core, as it is now called, is brought into 
perfect shape to fit the inside of the bell. 
This core is well smeared with grease, 
and a false clay bell, shaped by the outer 
leg of the compass, is fitted around its out¬ 
side. If inscriptions are desired, they are 
moulded in wax on the outside of the clay 
bell. The clay bell is then greased as was 
done with the core. Fine clay is sifted 
on the grease, and then coarse clay laid 
on and troweled to the shape desired. This 
outside and last covering is called the man¬ 
tle. A fire is now lighted in the center, 
as in a brick kiln, and is maintained un¬ 
til core, clay bell, and mantle are baked 
thoroughly into the semblance of pottery 
or tiling. During the firing process the 
grease between the core and clay bell, and 
between the clay bell and mantle is ab- 


sorbed, which, together with the shrinking, 
makes the three pieces fit together rather 
loosely. The outside mantle is now lifted 
away and the false clay bell is lifted off 
or broken up. The mantle is let down 
again into its former position, inclosing a 
space between itself and the core, the ex¬ 
act shape of the proposed bell. In other 
words, two patterns have been made, one 
fitting the inside of the bell, the other 
fitting the outside. The molten metal is 
now poured in at the top, between the two 
patterns, where the head of the stake was 
before the fire was built. The metal is 
allowed to cool for several weeks. To 
get the bell out, it is only necessary to 
lift away the mantle and then lift the bell 
from the core. If the proportions are per¬ 
fect, and the casting is without flaw, the 
bell will be in perfect tune. The maker 
tests his bell by tapping it just on the 
curve of the top, about one-fourth of the 
distance from the top, and again about 
the rim where the clapper strikes. If the 
bell be too thick in either of these three 
places, it may be filed slightly and brought 
into tune, but if, unfortunately, either of 
the three critical zones to be too thin, noth¬ 
ing can be done to remedy the defect. If 
the fault be too noticeable, the bell is 
worth nothing, except for metal to be 
melted and cast again. A maiden bell is 
one that is in tune without filing. Such a 
bell is prized highly. 

The note of a bell depends upon its 
weight. The larger and heavier the bell, 
the deeper the note. A bell weighing 22J4 
tons sounds C of the bass clef and costs 
about $18,000. A bell sounding C an 
octave higher weighs nearly three tons 
and is worth about $2,400. The law of 
notes runs to the effect that vibrations are 
in inverse ratio to the cube roots of the 
weights. 

Some of the great church and tower 
bells of the world are a twenty-five ton 
bell in Cologne Cathedral; Big Ben in 
Westminster Clock Tower, thirteen tons; 
Great Tom at Oxford, seven tons; Great 
Peter in York minster, ten tons; one at 
Rotterdam, seventeen tons; the great bell 
at Pekin, China, fifty-three tons. The 
largest bell in the world in actual use 


is at Moscow. It weighs eighty tons. The 
Great Bell of Moscow, reputed to be the 
greatest ever cast, was never hung. It 
now stands on a raised platform in the 
middle of the square. It is estimated to 
weigh one hundred ninety-eight tons. A 
bell in Kioto, Japan, is said to be still 
larger. It is twenty-four feet high and 
sixteen inches thick at the rim. The Jap¬ 
anese excel in casting sweet-toned bells. 

The first bell rung in the New World 
was swung in a church built early in 1494 
by Columbus on the island of San Domingo. 
This bell is of bronze, eight inches high 
and six and a half inches wide. The bells 
referred to by Longfellow in Evangeline, 

Distant and soft on her ear fell the chimes from 
the belfry of Christ Church, 

are chimes which peal forth every Sun¬ 
day morning from the steeple of old Christ 
Church, Philadelphia. These bells were 
brought from England, a present from 
Queen Anne. When the Quaker City 
was in danger of falling into the hands of 
the British, the precious bells were taken 
down and sunk in the Delaware by some 
patriotic members of the old church, who 
feared that if the enemy got possession 
of them they would be melted and cast 
into cannon balls. Afterward they were 
drawn up from their watery bed, and when 
the war came to a close were hung again 
in the old belfry. 

Modern uses of bells are almost too nu¬ 
merous to mention. Electrical bells are 
rung by a hammer attracted and released 
by a temporary magnet. Gray’s famous 
line, 

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds, 

is a reminder of the custom of placing 
bells on the leaders of the flock. Bells are a 
help not only in finding the cattle, but 
they enable the other members of the flock 
to keep with their leaders. Bells also 
frighten away wild animals. Horses pass¬ 
ing along the narrow mountain roads of 
Switzerland are furnished with bells to 
give notice of their approach so that their 
drivers may meet in a widened portion of 
the road. In many cities, sleigh bells are 
required to give notice of the otherwise 
noiseless approach of sleighs. 


BELL——BELLAMY 


\ 


A series of bells of different weights 
and consequently of different notes con¬ 
stitutes a peal, the ringing of which is a 
well known practice. Eight bells form an 
octave for the ordinary peal. 

See Copper ; Alloy ; Liberty Bell. 
Bell, Alexander Graham (1847-1922), 
an American scientist distinguished as the 
inventor of the first successful telephone, 
was born in Edinborough, Scotland. He 
was educated in Edinborough and at Lon¬ 
don University. At the age of 23 he 
removed with his father, Alexander Mel¬ 
ville Bell, to Canada. Alexander Melville 
was the originator of the system of visible 
speech, successfully used in teaching the 
deaf and dumb to speak. The son became 
greatly interested in his father’s work and 
in 1872 was appointed Professor of Vocal 
Physiology at the Boston University, where 
he introduced his father’s system. 

In connection with his work in teaching 
the deaf in the University, the professor 
took up the study of vibrations of the air 
during utterances of speech, with a view 
to developing an apparatus that would 
enable the deaf to recognize the forms of 
vibrations characteristic of the various ele¬ 
ments of speech. In the course of these 
experiments he constructed a membrane 
telephone which was the forerunner of the 
telephone of today. That was in 1874. 
The next few years were years of trial and 
struggle for the young college professor. 
On the same day on which Professor Bell 
filed his application for a patent for his 
telephone, another scientist, Elisha Gray, 
filed an application for a patent of a tele¬ 
phone. Bell’s patent was granted in 1876. 
Then followed a protracted litigation over 
the priority of claim between Bell and 
Gray. The question was finally decided by 
the United States Supreme Court in favor 
of Bell. Following this decision, the use 
of the telephone spread very rapidly. The 
first public experiment of the telephone 
was made in Philadelphia in 1876 and it 
was here that it received official recogni¬ 
tion. See Telephone. 

Notwithstanding the demand which the 
telephone interests made upon Professor 
Bell’s time he never lost his interest in 
teaching the deaf and dumb, and made a 


number of valuable researches, which were 
published. The Bell Telephone Company 
has been so managed that it has always 
held the monopoly of the telephone indus¬ 
try in the United States, and Dr. Bell’s 
royalties were very large. This income 
enabled him to carry on numerous lines of 
scientific work and to assist various causes 
and institutions during the later years of 
his life. He was the inventor of the pho¬ 
tophone, an instrument for conveying 
sounds by vibratory beams of light, and 
the graphophone, which was the forerun¬ 
ner of the phonograph. 

In 1883 Dr. Bell was elected a member 
of the National Academy of Sciences. He 
received the Volta prize from the French 
government in 1881 and founded the Volta 
Bureau in the United States. He was a 
member of the National Geographic So¬ 
ciety, and at one time president of the or¬ 
ganization. He was also a regent of the 
Smithsonian Institute. In 1913 Dartmouth 
College conferred upon him the degree 
of LL.D. 

Bell, Currer, a pseudonym of Charlotte 
Bronte. 

Bell, John (1797-1869), an American 
statesman. He was born near Nashville, 
Tennessee, went to school in that city, 
and was admitted to the bar when only 
nineteen. A year later he was elected to 
the state senate and in 1827 was sent by 
the Whig party to Congress. He was 
elected to the important post of speaker of 
the House in 1832. President Harrison 
chose him as secretary of war in 1841, and 
later he served ten years in the national 
Senate. The “Constitutional Union” party 
nominated him for the presidency, and he 
won the votes of Virginia, Kentucky, and 
his own state. When Tennessee was later 
hesitating on the brink of secession he is¬ 
sued an address urging upon her part 
armed neutrality, but after her secession 
he supported the policy of the South. 

Belladonna (Italian, beautiful lady). 
See Nightshade. 

Bellamy, Edward (1850-1898), an 
American journalist and novelist. He was 
born in Massachusetts. He was educated 
in Germany and, on his return to this coun¬ 
try, was admitted to the bar. Looking 



BELLEAU WOOD—BELLFLOWER 


backward, his most noted work, is of a 
socialistic character. It was published in 
1888. The story gives an imaginary pic¬ 
ture of social and industrial conditions in 
the year 2000. The book led to the for¬ 
mation of “Nationalist” clubs, in which 
work Mr. Bellamy was a leader. 

Belleau Wood. See War, the Great. 

Belle Jardinere, La, bel zhar-de-nyar, 
a celebrated painting of the Holy Family 
by Raphael. It represents the Madonna 
seated in the midst of a beautiful garden. 
The Child Jesus and the little St. John 
are leaning against her knees. The paint¬ 
ing is one of the treasures of the Louvre 
gallery, and is regarded as one of the most 
beautiful of the many pictures which have 
the Holy Family for a subject. The name 
means “the pretty gardener.” See Ra¬ 
phael; The Louvre. 

Bellerophon, bel-ler'o-fon, a legend¬ 
ary hero of Greece. Iobartes, king of 
Lycia, was greatly troubled by a terrible 
monster, the Chimaera, which wrought 
havoc throughout his kingdom. While 
Iobartes was looking for a hero to destroy 
the Chimaera, Bellerophon appeared. He 
brought letters from the king’s son-in-law,. 
recommending him as a brave and uncon¬ 
querable warrior, but closing with a re¬ 
quest that the king put Bellerophon to 
death. Iobartes, wishing to please his son- 
in-law, but hesitating to violate the laws 
of hospitality, decided to send Bellerophon 
to slay the Chimaera. Some good would 
thus be accomplished, for if the warrior 
failed to kill the Chimaera, the Chimaera 
would certainly kill the warrior. Bellero¬ 
phon was aided by the gods. Minerva 
gave him a golden bridle and guided the 
beautiful, winged steed, Pegasus, to his 
hand. Mounted on Pegasus, Bellerophon 
easily overcame the Chimaera. He per¬ 
formed many other valiant deeds. King^ 
Iobartes, seeing that his guest was a fa¬ 
vorite of the gods, gave him his daughter 
in marriage and made him his successor 
to the throne. Bellerophon was made ar¬ 
rogant by his good fortune. Mounting 
his winged steed one day, he attempted 
to fly to heaven. Zeus, angered at such 
presumption, sent a gadfly to sting Pega¬ 
sus, and the horse threw his rider. Lamed 


and blinded, Bellerophon wandered lonely 
for a time, and then died. The expression, 
“Bellerophontic letters,” is used to desig¬ 
nate communications which are designed to 
be in some way detrimental to the bearer. 
See Pegasus; Chimaera. 

He whose blind thought futurity denies, 
Unconscious bears, Bellerophon, like thee 
His own indictment; he condemns himself. 
Who reads his bosom reads immortal life, 

Or nature there, imposing on her sons, 

Has written fables; man was made a lie. 

—Young. 

Belle Isle, Strait of the northerly of 
the two channels by which the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence is connected with the Atlantic. 
It is 80 miles long, and from 10 to 15 
miles wide, and provides the shortest route 
from the St. Lawrence to Europe. Unfor¬ 
tunately, it is closed to navigation during 
more than half the year, and even in sum¬ 
mer ships are often endangered by floating 
ice. The “Arctic Stream” passes through 
this Strait. It takes its name from the 
imposing granite island, 700 feet high, at 
its Atlantic end. A lighthouse and a wire¬ 
less station are maintained by the Dominion 
Government. 

Belleville, Ill., a manufacturing city, 
14 miles east of St. Louis. It is the county 
seat of St. Clair Co. Here are located 
St. Peter’s Cathedral, St. Elizabeth Hos¬ 
pital, St. John’s Orphan Asylum, and a 
convent. It is the seat of a Roman Cath¬ 
olic bishop. Chief among its manufactures 
are stoves, brass ware, nails and tacks. 
Population, 1920, 24,741. 

Bellflower (Latin campanula, a little 
bell), a genus of some three hundred spe¬ 
cies. Our common species has long, nar¬ 
row leaves and a slender stem about knee 
high carrying a half dozen delicate, swing¬ 
ing, bright blue bells. It is the true 
‘'Dluebell” of Scotland, the identical “hare¬ 
bell” of Scott’s Lady of the Lake: 

E’en the slight harebell raised its head 
Elastic from her fairy tread. 

There are other species. The marsh 
bellflower is found amid wiregrass in wet, 
boggy places. The stem is weak and 
three-sided; the angles are roughened 
backward. The bells are nearly white. 
Still another species is found in the woods 
of Virginia and southward. The tall bell- 


BELLFLOWER—BELTANE 


flower is an upright annual, as tall as a 
man. It grows like a weed in rich soil 
from the Great Lakes to Georgia and 
Arkansas. It bears a spike of sessile, blue 
flowers. The blossoms are rotate instead 
of bellshaped; the leaves are broad;'the 
stock coarse. The plant lacks the unsur¬ 
passed delicacy of the harebell. 

Bellingham, Wash., 97 miles north of 
Seattle, is the county seat of Whatcom Co. 
It is in the center of an immense lumber, 
fishing and cement manufacturing dis¬ 
trict. Here is located the largest salmon 
canning factory in the world, and one of 
the largest cement manufacturing plants, 
the model plant on this continent. The 
only government bulb propagating farm 
is located here. The city has a normal 
school, 2 high and 11 graded schools, 2 
business colleges and 2 public libraries. 
Population, in 1920, 25,570. 

Bell-the-Cat, a sobriquet of Archibald 
Douglas, fifth earl of Angus. See Doug¬ 
las, Archibald. 

Beloit, Wis., a prosperous manufactur¬ 
ing town, attractively situated on the Rock 
River, 90 miles from Chicago. It is served 
by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and 
the Chicago & Northwestern railways. The 
city is built on both sides of the river, its 
area being less than 5 square miles. Elec¬ 
tric lines connect it with adjacent towns. 
There are many manufacturing establish¬ 
ments here where various products are 
made. It is the seat of Beloit College, a 
high- grade institution under the auspices 
of the Congregational Church. In 1923 the 
faculty numbered 57 and the enrollment 
was 650. Population, 1920, 21,284. 

Beloved Disciple, The, a name given 
to the Apostle John. In the Gospel of John 
the apostle speaks of himself as “the dis¬ 
ciple whom Jesus loved.” 

Belshazzar, bel-shaz'zar, a Babylonian 
prince mentioned in the Book of Daniel, 
Chapter v. He died 538 B. C. Accord¬ 
ing to the scriptural account, Belshazzar 
was the son of Nebuchadnezzar and the 
last of the Chaldean dynasty at Babylon. 
Ancient historians name Nabonidus as the 
last king, and do not mention Belshazzar 
as a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar. The 
cuneiform inscriptions discovered at Baby¬ 


lon have made clear this discrepancy. 
Nabonidus, the last Chaldean king, fled 
from Babylon after the defeat of his 
forces and while the city was in a state 
of siege. He left his son Belshazzar, whom 
he had previously associated with himself 
on the throne, in charge of Babylon. The 
story told by Daniel is that Belshazzar 
made a great feast to a thousand of his 
lords. While they were merry with wine, 
the fingers of a man’s hand appeared be¬ 
tween the great lamp and the wall, and 
traced words of unknown meaning on the 
plaster. The king was so terrified by the 
apparition that he lost countenance and 
his knees smote together. Pie called for 
his astrologers, but none was able to ex¬ 
plain the mystery until young Daniel, a 
Jewish captive, boldly interpreted the writ¬ 
ing as a warning that the Babylonian 
kingdom was at an end. That same night 
Belshazzar was slain and the Medes took 
possession of his kingdom. The “hand¬ 
writing on the wall” has been a favorite 
subject with both painters and poets. 
Byron has written two poems on Bel¬ 
shazzar and his vision. Belshazzar, by 
Procter, pseudonym Barry Cornwall, is 
the best known poem on the subject. 

Beltane, bel'tan, an ancient festival ob¬ 
served by the Druids on the first day of 
May. The origin of the name is unknown, 
but it is supposed to have been formed 
from two words—Beal, the chief deity of 
the Druids, and a word meaning fire. At 
Beltane, a great fire was kindled on some 
elevated spot in honor of the sun, whose 
returning warmth after the desolation of 
winter was thus celebrated. It was the 
custom to extinguish all fires in houses, 
and to relight them from the embers of the 
Beltane. The other great festival of Dru- 
idical worship was Samhin, meaning “fire 
of peace,” held on Hallow-eve. At this 
time, the judicial functions of the order 
were discharged. Public bonfires were 
also a part of the celebration. Hallow-eve 
is still called Samhin in some places in 
Scotland, and the name Beltane is used 
to designate Mayday, or sometimes Whit¬ 
sunday. 

Ours is no sapling, chance sown by the fountain. 
Blooming at Beltane in winter to fade. 4 

—Scott 


I 


BEN—BENEDICT XV 


Ben, a Gaelic word meaning mountain. 
Ben-Ledi, mentioned by Scott in his Lady 
of the Lake, means the same as Mount Le- 
di. There are a number of Bens in the 
Scottish Highlands. Ben-Lawers on Loch 
Tay is 3,984 feet in height. Ben-More in 
Perthshire is 3,083 feet in height. Scott 
speaks of Ben-An. Ben-Nevis in Inver¬ 
ness-shire is 4,406 feet high. It is the high¬ 
est elevation in Great Britain. Its sum¬ 
mit commands a magnificent view of the 
north of Scotland from sea to sea. 

Ben-Lomond, on the eastern coast of 
Loch Lomond, is the most celebrated moun¬ 
tain in Scotland. It rises to an elevation 
of 3,192 feet above the sea level. Its 
summit, four miles from the boat land¬ 
ing at Rowardennan, commands a pano¬ 
ramic view of southern Scotland. Its 
southeastern side is a sheer precipice 3,000 
feet in height. The slopes of Ben-Lo¬ 
mond present a great variety of vegeta¬ 
tion and have long been a botanical col¬ 
lecting ground for the students of the 
universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. 

Benar'es, a city of India. It is situ¬ 
ated in the eastern part of old Hindustan 
on the north bank of the Ganges, about 
400 miles northwest from Calcutta and the 
sea. Seen from the Ganges, Benares oc¬ 
cupies a vast amphitheater of hills. The 
city is a mass of hovels, narrow streets, 
palaces, mosques, minarets, and domes. 
The entire river frontage is faced with 
stone. Expensive river-stairs of freestone 
lead up from the water’s edge to pagodas 
and splendid temples. 

Benares is the most sacred city of the 
Hindus. There are over a thousand tem¬ 
ples. Wealthy Hindus from all over the 
Indian Empire still maintain town resi¬ 
dences at Benares. The Mohammedan 
wants to see Mecca that his salvation may 
be secure. The Hindu desires to die at 
Benares that he may enter at once upon 
a life of happiness. A multitude of persons 
press down the ghats, for so the landings 
are called, to bathe in the sacred Ganges 
and to carry away the sacred water for the 
ablutions of the afflicted elsewhere. A 
horde of beggars with sores beyond de¬ 
scription solicit alms from their more for¬ 


tunate countrymen or beset the stranger 
with importunity. 

Benares is the center of a productive 
district. Sugar and indigo are important 
products. There are local manufactures 
of brass work, shawls, silk goods, em¬ 
broidered cloth, and filagree work. 

The population in 1921 was 199,493. 

Ben Bolt, a song written by Thomas 
Dunn English in 1842. The poem was 
written at the request of N. P. Willis. Set 
to the music of an old German air by 
Nelson Kneass, it became popular both 
in England and America. It had, however, 
been partially forgotten when its effective 
use in Du Maurier’s Trilby called it again 
into favor. 

Oh! don’t you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt, 
Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown, 

Who wept with delight when you gave her a 
smile, 

And trembled with fear at your frown? 

In the old churchyard, in the valley, Ben Bolt, 
In a corner obscure and alone; 

They have fitted a slab of the granite so gray, 
And sweet Alice lies under the stone. 

Benedick, in Shakespeare’s comedy, 
Much Ado about Nothing, a young gen¬ 
tleman of Padua. He ridicules love and 
marriage, but, after a “courtship which is 
a contest of wit and raillery,” he marries 
Beatrice. The name Benedick, spelled 
also Benedict, comes from the Latin and 
signifies a happy man. It was sometimes 
applied in sport to the monks of the order 
of St. Benedict, noted for their ascetic 
habits, and who were, of course, vowed to 
celibacy. Shakespeare may have had this 
jest in mind when he gave the name to the 
lover of Beatrice. It is Shakespeare’s 
Benedick, and not the jest, that is to be 
remembered when we hear a newly wedded 
man called a “benedick.” 

When I said I would die a bachelor, I did 
not think I should live till I were married.— 
Much Ado About Nothing. 

Benedict XV (1854-1922), succes¬ 
sor to Pope Pius X in September, 1914. 
Giacomo della Chiesa was born in Pegli 
near Genoa of noble family his father 
being Marchese della Chiesa. After the 
usual preliminary education he was ordained 
to the priesthood in 1878. He advanced 
by degrees till in 1907 he became Arch¬ 
bishop of Bologna, and in May, 1914, cax* 





BENEDICT, SAINT 


dinal. Previous to the conclave of that year 
his name was little mentioned for the papal 
chair. His choice resulted from the deci¬ 
sion to select a compromise candidate rather 
than prolong to the point of bitterness a 
contest between the supporters of other ri¬ 
val candidates. His election has generally 
been regarded as a happy one. Although 
coming to the chair at a most critical time 
his experience as secretary to the late Car¬ 
dinal Rampolla, a skilled diplomat, should 
fit him admirably to meet the situation. His 
first public utterance was an exhortation to 
all Roman Catholics to work and pray for 
peace. 

Benedict, Saint (480-543), an Italian 
monk. He was a native of Norcia or Nur- 
sia, an Italian town up in the mountains, 
about seventy miles northeast of Rome. 
He was sent to Rome to be educated, but 
fled the Eternal City, so the chronicle runs, 
to escape the vice and violence that pre¬ 
vailed. He betook himself to a wild defile 
where he found seclusion and shelter. The 
details of his life, his growing fame for pi¬ 
ety, attempts on his life, and the founding 
of cloisters may be passed over. In 1520 
he located at Monte Cassino, about forty- 
five miles northwest of Naples. Here he es¬ 
tablished an abbey considered the earliest 
in the western world. The building, which 
must have sheltered thousands of inmates, 
is a huge, square, three-story affair. It 
still stands and is used as a seminary. 

Each Benedictine took three vows: of 
poverty, of chastity, and of obedience. 
Benedict cast aside the system of bodily in¬ 
fliction,—of scourging and starving in 
vogue in eastern lands. He divided the 
twenty-four hours into reasonable periods 
for eating, sleeping, devotion, manual la¬ 
bor, and intellectual improvement. Thou¬ 
sands of adherents flocked to Monte Cas¬ 
sino. Band after band migrated to found 
establishments of like nature. 

The Benedictines were the earliest order 
of western monks. Their devotion to 
scholarship, as demanded by the rule of St. 
Benedict, resulted in the preservation of 
precious literature through centuries of 
burning,-plundering, and wanton destruc¬ 
tion—centuries when monasteries were 
about the only buildings treated with any 


show of respect; for the Benedictines not 
only made collections of manuscripts, but 
they worked diligently copying manu¬ 
scripts that learning might be multiplied 
abroad in the land. A library, with a desk 
for copying manuscripts, was a prominent 
part of a Benedictine monastery. At its 
height, the great brotherhood of St. Bene¬ 
dict included, it is thought, no less than 
40,000 monasteries. Venerable Bede, Al- 
cuin, and St. Augustine, the first arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, were Benedictines. 
The reader should not fail to get the idea 
that the Benedicts were a “missionary, 
civilizing, educational body.” 

Some notion of the spirit which was in¬ 
culcated may be had from the following 
extracts from the Rule of St. Benedict, 
generally followed in the monasteries of 
the West: 

Laziness is the enemy of the soul, and con¬ 
sequently the brothers should, at certain times, 
occupy themselves in manual labor; at others, 
in holy reading. ... If the poverty of the place, 
necessity, or the harvest keep them constantly 
employed, let them not mind that, for they 
are truly monks if they live by manual labor, 
as our brothers the apostles did; but let every 
thing be done with moderation, for the sake of 
the weak. . . . During Lent all shall receive 
books from the library, which they shall read one 
after another, all through. . . . On Sunday let 
all be occupied in reading, except those who are 
selected for various functions. If any one be 
negligent or lazy, so that he wishes neither to 
meditate nor read, let some labor be enjoined 
upon him, so that he may not remain doing 
nothing. ... If, by chance, anything difficult 
or impossible be imposed upon a brother, . . . 
let him explain fitly and patiently to his superior 
the reason of the impossibility, not inflamed with 
pride, not resisting, not contradicting. If, after 
his observation, the prior persists in his opinion 
and his command, let the disciple know that it 
ought to be so, and confiding in the aid of God, 
let him obey. ... Let no person dare to give 
or receive without the order of the abbot, nor 
have anything of his own peculiar property, not 
a book, nor tablets, nor a pen, nor anything 
whatsoever. Love the Lord thy God with the 
whole heart, whole soul, whole strength, and 
thy neighbor as thyself. Renounce luxuries. Re¬ 
lieve the poor. Clothe the naked. Do no in¬ 
juries, and bear them patiently. When you see 
anything good in yourself, attribute it to God 
and not to yourself. 

The Benedictines have numerous monas¬ 
teries in western Europe, including eight 
abbeys in England. In the United States, 
there are about 1,000 members of the order 


BENEFIT OF CLERGY—BENEVOLENCES 


under the rule of thirteen abbots. They 
maintain sixteen colleges. 

Benedict is derived from the Latin bene- 
dictus, well spoken, or blessed. There 
have been fourteen popes by the name of 
Benedict. 

Benefit of Clergy, in law, the exemp¬ 
tion of clergymen from trial by the courts 
of the people. During the Middle Ages the 
church had a complete system of courts. 
Trials were conducted by or under au¬ 
thority of archdeacon, bishop, archbishop, 
and pope. Appeals might be carried on 
up to a church council. Each cathedral 
had its church court and an army of of¬ 
ficers. Cases involving marriage, inherit¬ 
ance and usury might be brought before 
these courts; but especially cases of church 
discipline and, what is to the point, 
charges against the clergy, clerks, friars, 
and all other persons connected in a cleri¬ 
cal capacity with the service of the church. 
These courts did not claim the power of 
life and death. They were milder than the 
popular courts. Penance, fines, and de¬ 
grading from rank were imposed rather 
than stripes, the pillory, or imprisonment. 
As a natural consequence, priests brought 
up before the ordinary courts claimed 
‘‘benefit of clergy” and were turned over to 
the court of the church. The existence of 
church courts was not without a parallel in 
the courts of certain guilds. 

The system was not without its good 
side, but abuses grew up. Unworthy per¬ 
sons took holy orders for the protection af¬ 
forded. The country swarmed with “holy 
clerks,” who were engaged in other occu¬ 
pations. In a day when few learned to 
read, the ability to read a line or two even 
with the whispered connivance of a court 
officer, was sufficient at times, especially if 
supported by a few pounds, shillings, and 
pence, to prove title to benefit of cler¬ 
gy and set an arrant knave free. The 
benefit of clergy, in fact, was extended, as 
the principle worked out, to all persons 
who could read and write, and became 
a gross parody on justice,—a means where¬ 
by the law rested lightly on the well-to-do 
and grievously on the poor man. 

In England the first recognition of the 
benefit of clergy appears in the statutes 


of Edward I, 1274. The privilege was 
modified in the reign of Henry VIII, and 
was repealed wholly in 1827, during the 
reign of George IV. Benefit of clergy was 
recognized by the early codes in the Ameri¬ 
can colonies. 

Benevolences, in English history, a 
system of forced loans exacted by royal 
authority without permission of Parlia¬ 
ment. We hear of these “loans” in the 
reign of Edward IV. Prior to the Wars 
of the Roses Parliament made more 
progress in controlling the expenditures of 
king and ministers than was in all respects 
pleasing to the crown. Parliamentary grants 
of money, moreover, were conditioned on a 
redress of grievances too often to suit royal 
ideas of prerogative. The civil war be¬ 
tween the houses of Lancaster and York 
gave the king an opportunity to fill the 
royal coffers with plunder and moneys 
from the sale of confiscated estates. Ed¬ 
ward IV caused a bill of attainder to be 
passed stripping twelve great nobles and 
knights of their estates. An obsequious 
Parliament granted him the customs for 
life, and he made large sums of money by 
sending out trading vessels. Nevertheless, 
Edward desired more money, and he de¬ 
sired to raise it without reviving the prop¬ 
er and legal custom of calling Parliament 
together. He hit upon the plan of calling 
upon wealthy persons for “benevolences.” 
A merchant invited to the royal presence, 
and received with great affability, could 
hardly refuse when told that his royal 
highness was in need of a “loan,”—a “be¬ 
nevolence”—of a certain sum. Green, the 
historian, says this exaction was resented 
bitterly, but resistance was fruitless. 

An act passed during the reign of 
Richard III forbade the levying of be¬ 
nevolences, but, nevertheless, Wolsey and 
Henry VIII resumed the practice on a 
large scale. London merchants were 
asked to make up 20,000 pounds, and a 
commission was sent to every shire to ex¬ 
act loans. The amount collected was 
small in proportion to the demand made, 
but bad blood was stirred up. Even Hen¬ 
ry and Wolsey were forced to give up. 

James, the first of the Stuarts, the 
same during whqse reign Jamestown and 


BENGAL 


Plymouth were settled, tried to govern 
without Parliament. His council sent out 
letters, oriental fashion, demanding loans 
from the larger landholders, I he sheriffs, 
as the judges were called, did their best’ 
but succeeded in raising not to exceed 60,- 
000 pounds in three years. 

Charles I, in no wise deterred by the 
failure of his predecessors, was determined 
to raise money without the consent of 
Parliament. He held that a king who 
had to bargain for money with which to 
carry on the government, was not a king at 
alb He was willing to beg, to borrow 
from individuals, or to force loans; but he 
and his courtiers set themselves against the 
authority of Parliament. Rather than 
come to time and correct abuses demanded 
by Parliament, they made a systematic de¬ 
mand for benevolences. Many counties 
refused outright; some sheriffs evaded the 
demand; others sent in grudging contribu¬ 
tions. The king ordered a forced loan,— 
a general tax to be collected by the courts 
and tax gatherers. A tremendous outcry 
went up. Some clergymen preached the 
doctrine of “passive obedience,” but the 
people were in an uproar. Peasants and 
squires alike were called before the tax 
gatherer and examined as to their ability 
to “aid the king.” Troops were quartered 
in rebellious districts to awe the people 
into submission. Those who paid were 
hooted and jeered at by their neighbors. 
Those who did not pay were threatened 
and maltreated. Soldiers were quartered 
in their homes. Poor men who would not 
pay their little were torn from their fami¬ 
lies and hurried off to the army and the 
navy. Two hundred English gentlemen 
were confined in disgraceful prisons to 
subdue their obstinancy. Little revenue 
was raised. Charles was obliged finally to 
summon his Parliament. 

The doctrine of benevolences died hard. 
It was a part of the larger doctrine of the 
divine right of kings. The exaction of 
benevolences did much to bring the cour¬ 
age of the English people to a sticking 
point. They taught kings that they had 
“necks like other people,” and showed 
rulers that they had only such authority 
as the people might choose to give them. 


This abuse, so inconsistent with the main¬ 
tenance of political liberty, was renounced 
formally by the king in the “Petition of 
Rights” (1628), and, though Charles af¬ 
terward broke his plighted word in this 
matter, the great Civil War of 1642 
marked its final disappearance. 

An appeal was made to the nation to pay 
as a free gift the subsidies which the Parlia¬ 
ment had refused to grant till their grievances 
were redressed. But the tide of public resistance 
was slowly rising. Refusals to give anything, 
save by way of Parliament,” came in from coun¬ 
ty after county. When the subsidy-men of Mid¬ 
dlesex and Westminster were urged to comply, 
they answered with a tumultuous shout of “a 
Parliament! a Parliament! else no subsidies!” 
Kent stood out to a man. In Bucks the very 
justices neglected to ask for the “free gift.” 
The freeholders of Cornwall only answered that, 
if they had but two kine, they would sell one 
of them for supply to his Majesty—in a Par¬ 
liamentary way.” The failure of the voluntary 
gift forced Charles to an open defiance of the 
law. He met it by the levy of a forced loan. 
Commissioners were named to assess the amount 
which every landowner was bound to lend, and 
to examine on oath all who refused. Every 
means of persuasion, as of force, was resorted to. 
The pulpits of the Laudian clergy resounded 
with the cry of “passive obedience.” Dr. Main- 
waring preached before Charles himself, that 
the King needed no Parliamentary warrant for 
taxation, and that to resist his will was to in¬ 
cur eternal damnation. Poor men who refused 
to lend were pressed into the army or navy. 
Stubborn tradesmen were flung into prison. 
Buckingham himself undertook the task of over¬ 
awing the nobles and the gentry. Charles met 
the opposition of the judges by instantly dis¬ 
missing from his office the Chief Justice, Crew. 
But in the country at large resistance was uni¬ 
versal. The northern counties in a mass set 
the Crown at defiance. The Lincolnshire farm¬ 
ers drove the Commissioners from the town. 
Shropshire, Devon, and Warwickshire “refused 
utterly.” Eight peers, with Lord Essex and 
Lord Warwick at their head, declined to com¬ 
ply with the exaction as illegal. Two hundred 
country gentlemen, whose obstinacy had not 
been subdued by their transfer from prison to 
prison, were summoned before the Council; and 
John Hampden, as yet only a young Bucking¬ 
hamshire squire, appeared at the board to be¬ 
gin that career of patriotism which has made 
his name dear to Englishmen. “I could be con¬ 
tent to lend,” he said, “but fear to draw on my¬ 
self that curse in Magna Charta, which should 
be read twice a year against those who infringe 
it.”—J. R. Green, History of the English People. 

Bengal, a presidency of British India. 
The name is applied to territory having 
widely varying boundaries, and inhabited 


BEN HUR—BENNETT 


by from 4,000,000 to 70,000,000 people 
according to the interpretation placed on 
the name. It is perhaps sufficient for the 
general reader to say that historical Ben¬ 
gal extends from the foothills of the Him¬ 
alayas to the Bay of Bengal, and that it 
comprises the great plains of the Ganges 
and the Brahmaputra. 

Ben Hur, ben her, a novel by Lew 
Wallace, an American writer, published in 
1880. The scene of the story is laid in 
the East in the time of Christ. Ben Hur, 
a young Jew, is the hero of the tale. He 
has many exciting adventures, and is final¬ 
ly converted to Christianity through the 
miracles of Jesus. The story has been 
successfully dramatized. The chariot race 
is the most dramatic scene in both play and 
story. See Wallace, Lew. 

And now, to make the turn, Messala began 
to draw in his left-hand steeds, an act which 
necessarily slackened their speed. His spirit 
was high; more than one altar was richer 
of his vows; the Roman genius was still presi¬ 
dent. On the three pillars only six hundred feet 
away were fame, increase of fortune, promotions, 
and a triumph ineffably sweetened by hate, all 
in store for him! That moment Malluch, in 
the gallery, saw Ben-IIur lean forward over his 
Arabs, and give them the reins. Out flew the 
many-folded lash in his hand; over the backs 
of the startled steeds it writhed and hissed, and 
hissed and writhed again and again ; and though 
it fell not, there were both sting and menace in 
its quick report; and as the man passed thus 
from quiet to resistless action, his face suffused, 
his eyes gleaming, along the reins he seemed 
to flash his will; and instantly not one, but 
the four as one, answered with a leap that land¬ 
ed them along side the Roman’s car. Messala, 
on the perilous edge of the goal, heard, but dared 
not look to see what the awakening portended 
From the people he received no sign. Above 
the noises of the race there was but one voice, 
and that was Ben-IIur’s. In the old Aramaic, 
as the sheik himself, he called to the Arabs. 

“On, Atair! On, Rigel! What, Antares! dost 
thou linger now? Good horse—oho, Aldebaran ! 
I hear them singing in the tents. I hear the 
children singing and the women—singing of the 
stars, of Atair, Antares, Rigel, Aldebaran, vic¬ 
tory!—and the song will never end. Well done! 
Borne tomorrow, under the black tent—home! 
On, Antares! The tribe is waiting for us, 
and the master is waiting! ’Tis done ! ’Tis done ! 
Ha, ha! We have overthrown the proud. The 
hand that smote us is in the dust. Ours the 
glory! Ha, ha!—steady! The work is done— 
soho! Rest!” 

.Benjamin, Judah Philip (1811-1884), 


an American statesman. He was born in 
the West Indies. His parents were Eng¬ 
lish Jews, who, shortly after the birth of 
the child removed to North Carolina. As 
a young man Benjamin studied law and 
was admitted to the bar in New Orleans. 
He was elected United States Senator in 
1852 and 1858, but when Louisiana seced¬ 
ed he withdrew from the Senate. When 
the Confederacy was organized he became 
attorney-general in Davis’ cabinet, later 
was secretary of war and for the last 
three years of the war, Confederate secre¬ 
tary of state. He was a most able advo¬ 
cate of the Southern cause, and was widely 
known as the “Brains of the Confederacy.” 
After the war he went to London where he 
practiced law successfully. 

Bennett, Enoch Arnold, (1867-), 

an English novelist whose stories have 
won a wide popularity. He was born in 
Hanley, one of the Five Towns which his 
writings have made famous, and educated 
at the University of London. His novels 
are realistic and excel in depicting the 
characters of common people in everyday 
life. His best known wmrks are The Old 
Wives' Tale, Anna of the Five Towns, 
Clayhanger, Hilda Lessways, These Twain 
and The Matador of the Five Towns. His 
essays, The Human Machine and How to 
Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day, have 
been widely read. 

Bennett, James Gordon (1795-1872), 
an American journalist, founder and for 
thirty-seven years editor of the New York 
Herald. He was born in Scotland and 
educated at Aberdeen for the Catholic 
priesthood. Happening to read Franklin’s 
Autobiography he became interested in 
America and emigrated to this country, 
a poor youth, in 1819. He tried teaching, 
writing, lecturing, and proof-reading, 
managing to eke out a meagre living. In 
1835 he began to publish the New York 
Herald, a small one-cent paper. It was 
printed in a cellar where its proprietor and 
editor acted also as salesman. But Ben¬ 
nett had found his own work. His habits 
of industry and his wise judgment won 
wealth and success. He was the first to 
employ European correspondents, the first 
to make systematic sale of papers by news- 





BENNINGTON—BEOWULF 


boys, the first to publish the stock lists and 
a daily money article. The first speech 
ever fully reported by telegraph was sent 
to the Herald. It was at Bennett’s insti¬ 
gation that his son James Gordon Ben¬ 
nett, Jr., together with the London Daily 
Telegraph, supplied the funds for Stanley’s 
expedition to Central Africa in search of 
Dr. Livingstone. 

James Gordon Bennett, Jr., succeeded his 
father as editor and proprietor of the New 
York Herald. 

Bennington, Vermont, a prosperous 
county seat with a population of 8,000. 
Its factories produce a large quantity of 
woolen and knit goods. There is a home 
for Vermont soldiers there; also a soldiers’ 
monument. The town has good schools 
and other evidences of New England 
thrift and intelligence. The battle of 
Bennington was fought on August 16, 
1777. General Burgoyne sent a column of 
1,000 men eastward under Colonel Baum 
to collect supplies. They were met by the 
Green Mountain Boys under General 
Stark, who whipped them soundly, taking 
600 British prisoners and 1,000 stand of 
arms. The American loss was 14 killed 
and 42 wounded. Two hundred and seven 
British fell before the rifles of the woods¬ 
men. This victory gave new life to the 
American cause. The muskets and ammu¬ 
nition were of great service. A fine gran¬ 
ite monument, 300 feet high, commemo¬ 
rates the victory. See Vermont. 

Bentham, ben'tam, Jeremy (1748- 
1832), a distinguished English writer. He 
was a native of London. Bentham may be 
associated in mind with Mill, Carlyle, 
Ruskin, and a host of other writers who 
insisted that English laws and English 
society did injustice to the great mass of 
the people. His house stood at the back 
end of an alley and faced inward on a 
little garden, “like an oasis in the desert.” 
He desired privacy in order to busy him¬ 
self with his studies, but his house was 
always open to his friends. It was quite 
a resort for thinking people. In 1823 he 
founded the Westminster Review, a peri¬ 
odical which had much influence on the 
legislation of Great Britain. A nephew, 
George Bentham, was a frequenter of the 


Kew Gardens and united with Sir Joseph 
Hooker in the preparation of Genera 
Plantarum, or genera of plants, the great¬ 
est descriptive botany ever written. See 
Mill. 

Benton, Thomas Hart (1782-1858), 
a native of North Carolina. He was a 
member of the Tennessee legislature and 
served as a colonel in the War of 1812. 
He moved to Missouri to engage in news¬ 
paper work. He served that state as a 
United States Senator from 1821 to 1851. 
During his lifetime he published his Thir¬ 
ty Years’ Vieiv, a historical retrospect of 
the period during which he sat in the Sen¬ 
ate. \\ hile his rank was subordinate to 
that of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster, his 
career was open and honorable. He was 
an ardent supporter of Jackson in the fa¬ 
mous nullification contest with Calhoun. 
His efforts in support of sound money won 
him the nickname of “Old Bullion.” He 
favored the extension of slavery. He 
failed in an attempt to harmonize the 
views of the Northern Democracy with 
those of the Southern wing, and conse¬ 
quently lost prestige and fell out of poli¬ 
tics. See Fremont. 

Benzene, or Benzol, a coal-tar product, 
obtained from the light oil or first distil¬ 
late. It is important in chemistry as the 
first member of an important series of 
hydrocarbons, known as the aromatic series. 
It is a colorless liquid, has a pleasant odor, 
solidifies at about the freezing point, and 
burns with a bright flame. The main use 
is as a solvent for India-rubber, gutta 
percha, fat, and wax. Added to nitric acid, 
it gives nitrobenzene from which aniline is 
made. The distinction from the petroleum 
product, benzine, is to be rioted. 

Benzine, ben'zen, a clear, colorless 
liquid obtained by the distillation of petro¬ 
leum. It is closely allied to gasoline and 
naphtha, which see. It is used principally 
in the arts to dissolve fats, oils, resins, etc. 
In the household, benzine is useful for 
removing accidental daubs of paint, clean¬ 
ing windows, marbleware, and the like. 

Beowulf, ba'6-wulf, an Anglo-Saxon 
epic poem. It is of unknown authorship. 
In all probability this oldest of English 
epics grew up out of ballads sung at feasts. 


BERBERS 


and was enlarged by successive singers or 
scops, as they were called. Scholars find 
reason to believe that many of these songs 
or ballads were composed before the An¬ 
gles and the Saxons entered England. 
The characters of the poem are evidently 
Danes, and the scenes are laid on the 
coast of Denmark and in southern Sweden. 
These songs were committed to manu¬ 
script probably in the seventh or eighth 
century,—it is certain that it was after 
the introduction of Christianity into Eng¬ 
land. Although the subject matter is 
heathen, the poem shows the influence of 
the Christian religion. This manuscript 
came into the possession of Sir Robert 
Cotton, and in 1707, seventy-five years af¬ 
ter Sir Robert’s death, was sold, with his 
large collection of original documents, to 
the British nation. This collection, known 
as the Cottonian library, was damaged by 
fire in 1731. It was transferred to the 
British Museum in 1753 on the founding 
of that institution; and there this single 
manuscript of Beowulf, stained with 
smoke and torn in many places, may still 
be seen. It is the earliest specimen of 
English literature, and is the first epic in 
the entire Germanic group of languages. 

The Beowulf manuscript contains about 
6,365 lines. These are what we would 
call half-lines; that is, each has two 
strongly marked accents. As we should 
print the poem now, it would consist of 
something over three thousand lines. It 
is written in Anglo-Saxon. One who has 
made no preparation by previous study 
would find the manuscript as difficult to 
read as is Greek or Latin to one unac¬ 
quainted with these languages. 

Beowulf is a Scandinavian hero, corre¬ 
sponding to the Greek Hercules. His 
name means “bear,” and was given in com¬ 
pliment—because he was so great a war¬ 
rior. He “rowed upon the sea, his naked 
sword held in hand.” He slew sea mon¬ 
sters and sped to the aid of the old Danish 
king who sat afflicted “in his great mead 
hall, high and carved with pinnacles.” 
Grendel, a mighty ogre, visited the mead- 
hall, killing and eating the warriors. Beo¬ 
wulf slew the monster after a terrible fight. 
He slew the “foul she-wolf of the abyss,” 


Grendel’s mother. “The sword was bloody, 
the man rejoiced in his deed; the beam 
shone, light stood within, even as from 
heaven shines mildly the lamp of the fir¬ 
mament.” Beowulf, having relieved the 
Danes, ruled his own people for fif¬ 
ty years, and at last died as a result 
of a battle with the fire dragon; but he 
had slain the dragon, and had won for his 
people the treasure of gold and jewels hid¬ 
den in the earth. His people burned his 
body on a great funeral pyre, and long 
mourned his loss. They 

Said he was mightiest of all the great world- 
kings, / 

Mildest of rulers, most gentle in manner,’ 

Most kind to his liegemen, most eager for honor. 

The poem is somber—dark with blood 
and swords, ravens of war, and hand to 
hand conflicts. There is alliteration, there 
is powerful description throughout the 
poem, but there are only six similes. 
Several translations of this poem into 
modern English have been made. Those 
in prose form, being more literal, seem 
more in the spirit of the original than do 
those which are more poetical. 

The following quotation gives the words 
of Beowulf when he knew that he must 
die: 

“I have held this people fifty years; there was 
not any king of my neighbors, who dared to 
greet me with warriors, to oppress me with ter¬ 
ror. ... I held mine own well, I sought not 
treacherous malice, nor swore unjustly many 
oaths; on account of all this, I, sick with mor¬ 
tal wounds, may have joy. . . . Now do thou 
go immediately to behold the hoard under the 
hoary stone, my dear Wiglaf. . . . Now, I have 
purchased with my death a hoard of treasures; 
it will be yet of advantage at the need of the 
people. ... I give thanks . . . that I might be¬ 
fore my dying day obtain such for my peoples 
. . . longer may I not here be.” 

See Brut; Anglo-Saxon. 

Ber'bers, an ancient people spread over 
northern Africa, particularly along the 
southern shore of the Mediterranean. 
They have a brown complexion, with dark, 
glossy hair, and are active and robust. 

1 heir language and features are akin to 
the Egyptians, rather than to the Arabs, 
by whom they have been, in a way, subju¬ 
gated. They number five or six million 
and are found chiefly in Algiers, Morocco, 


BERENICE'S LOCKS—BERGAMOT 


and the Sahara, their chief stronghold 
being the northern Sahara and the Atlas 
Mountains. The Berbers vary greatly. 
Many tribes preserve an independence akin 
to that of Bedouin Arabs. Others have 
settled down to agriculture, and have be¬ 
come an industrious, skillful race, quite 
able to manufacture their own guns, pow¬ 
der, and soap. They perform a large part 
of the agricultural work in Algiers, and 
are famous raisers of cattle and goats. 
The mountain tribes that give the Sul¬ 
tan of Morocco so much trouble by carry¬ 
ing off prisoners to be held for ransom 
are of this race. See Algiers. 

Berenice’s Locks, ber'e-nl-sez loks, a 
group of seven stars forming the constella¬ 
tion Coma Berenices. Berenice was the 
wife of Ptolemy III. While her husband 
was on an expedition in Syria, Berenice 
vowed to sacrifice her beautiful hair in the 
temple of the wargod, should he be 
brought back to her in safety. Ptolemy 
returned and Berenice hung her hair in 
the temple. The hair disappeared, for it 
was the will of the gods that it should be 
hung in the skies to shine forever in token 
that they were pleased with a wife’s de¬ 
votion. 

Berea College, a co-educational insti¬ 
tution established at Berea, Ky., in 1855. 
It is situated on the edge of the Cumberland 
Mountains. The College has won wide 
distinction because of the discovery of the 
worth of the peoples in the southern moun¬ 
tains and its adaptation of methods and 
courses of study to their needs. The in¬ 
stitution maintains a college of standard 
rank, and vocational, normal, high school 
and music departments. The students come 
from the mountain regions of Kentucky, 
Tennessee, North Carolina, South Caro¬ 
lina, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama and West 
Virginia. There are about 150 members 
in the faculty and the enrollment exceeds 
2,500. 

Beresford, Lord Charles William de 
la Poer (1846-1919), British admiral, was 
born in County Waterford, Ireland. He 
entered the navy in 1859, and rose through 
all grades on his boundless enthusiasm and 
ability. As commander of H. M. S. 
Condor, he assisted at the bombardment of 


Alexandria in 1882, distinguishing himself 
and receiving special recognition for his 
cool daring. He commanded the Safieh in 
the Nile column of the Gordon Relief Ex¬ 
pedition; and he was in command of the 
naval brigade at the battles of Abu Klea, 
Abu Kru and Metemmeh. He entered 
Parliament, and worked hard trying to se¬ 
cure a reorganization of the British naval 
program, but with no great success. He 
won the enmity of the Admiralty, but was 
made commander of the Channel fleet with 
the rank of admiral in 1907. In 1911, he 
retired from the navy. He was a strong 
advocate of the “open door” policy in 
China, speaking for it several times in the 
United States. 

Beresford, William Carr, Viscount 

(1768-1854), a British military officer; a 
natural son of the first Marquis of Water¬ 
ford; born in 1768. Pie entered the army, 
lost an eye at Nova Scotia, served at Tou¬ 
lon, and in Corsica, the West Indies, and 
Egypt. 

In 1806 as Brigadier-General, he com¬ 
manded the land force in the expedition 
of Buenos Ayres; and, in 1908, remodeled 
the Portuguese army, receiving in return 
the titles of Marshal of Portugal, Duke of 
Elvas, and Marquis of Santo Campo. As 
Marshal, at the head of 12,000 men he at¬ 
tacked the French in the north of that 
kingdom, crossed the river Douro, drove 
Loison’s division to Amarante, and uniting 
with the force under Sir Arthur Wellesley, 
pursued it until it was quite disorganized. 
He received rich rewards from the Brit¬ 
ish government, and in the administra¬ 
tion of Wellington (1828-30), he was 
appointed to the office of master-general 
of the ordnance. 

Bergamot, ber'ga-mot, a small tree 
with leaves and flowers like those of the 
bitter orange and with a fruit like the 
lemon. Bergamot grows chiefly in Italy. 
Oil of bergamot is obtained by grinding 
the rind of the fruit. It is of a limpid, 
greenish-yellow color, with a strong, 
pleasant, lemon odor, and a bitter taste. 
It is used in the manufacture of perfumery 
and as a flavor. The “wild bergamot” of 
the American botanist is a square-stemmed, 
aromatic herb of the mint family. The 


BERGEN—BERGERAC 


blossoms are collected in a sort of head. 
The corollas are deeply two-lipped, about 
an inch in length. They vary in color 
from purple to bright crimson, lilac, and 
rose red. 

Bergen, berg'en, a city on the western 
coast of Norway, 186 miles northwest of 
Christiania. It occupies an amphitheater 
at the head of a deep fiord twenty-five 
miles from the open sea, and is surrounded 
by rocky hills from 500 to 2,000 feet high. 
This city is sheltered. The climate is 
mild, with an annual rainfall of over 
seventy inches. Most of the houses are 
built of hewed logs, giving the town quite 
an alpine appearance. A market place, 
several churches, and a cathedral are 
worth seeing. A library of 50,000 vol¬ 
umes, a theater, a museum, and other insti¬ 
tutions afford pleasure and instruction 
during the long winter months. The ship¬ 
builders of the Clyde obtain timber from 
Bergen. Its merchants ship dried fish, 
herrings, tar, lumber, fish oil, and hides in 
exchange for flour, groceries, and clothing. 
At one time the Hanseatic League had 
an agency here and monopolized trade 
until expelled by the Norwegians in 1558. 
Their old building is still used as a ware¬ 
house. Bergen is the second city of Nor¬ 
way; it is an important seaport, with ex¬ 
tensive shipping, and is well fortified. Im¬ 
ports and exports are heavy. 

Two famous musicians were born here 
—Ole Bull and Edvard Grieg; it is also 
the birthplace of the poet Holberg. The 
last census gives Bergen a population of 
90,733. See Norway. 

Berger, Victor L. (1860- ), a 

German-American Socialist leader and edi¬ 
tor. He was born at Nieder Rebbuch, 
Austria-Hungary, and educated in a gym¬ 
nasium and at the universities of Budapest 
and Vienna. He emigrated to America 
with his family, and settled in Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin, where he still resides. After 
working at various trades, Mr. Berger 
became a teacher in the public schools of 
Milwaukee. Because of his literary ability 
and his intense interest in the cause of So¬ 
cialism, Mr. Berger arose in a few years to 
national prominence. He edited the Mil¬ 
waukee Daily Vorwaerts from 1892 to 


1896. Later, he edited Wahrheit , a Ger¬ 
man Socialist paper, and also the Social 
Democratic Herald. Finally, he was 
chosen editor-in-chief of the Milwaukee 
Leader, a Socialist Daily. Mr. Berger 
was a delegate to the People’s Party Con¬ 
vention at St. Louis in 1896, and assisted 
in founding the Social Democratic party in 
the United States. 

In 1910, he was elected alderman in 
Milwaukee, and in 1911 was elected to 
Congress, the first Socialist ever elected 
to the House of Representatives. In 1918, 
Mr. Berger and several other Socialists 
were indicted by a federal grand jury for 
their opposition to the draft and for other¬ 
wise opposing the government’s policies in 
connection with the war against Germany. 
He and his associates were found guilty, 
and were sentenced to twenty years im¬ 
prisonment, in the federal prison at Leav¬ 
enworth, Kansas. The United States 
Supreme Court reversed the decisions of 
the lower courts against Mr. Berger, and 
he was again elected to Congress in 1922. 

Bergerac, barzh-rah', S. Cyrano de 
(1619-1655), a French dramatist and nov¬ 
elist, notorious also as a duelist. It is said 
that he fought more than a thousand 
duels and that most of them were in de¬ 
fense of his monstrous nose, to criticisms 
of which he was sensitive. His particular 
gift appears to have been in the writing 
of satire and burlesque romance. His 
writings were witty, vigorous, and full of 
invention, but lacking in finish. His 
works include Le Pedant lone, A grip pine. 
Comic Histories of the States and Em¬ 
pires of the Sun, and Comic Histories of 
the States and Empires of the Moon. It 
is believed that Dean Swift and Edgar 
Allen Poe were both influenced in their 
imaginative writings by the work of Berge¬ 
rac. It is not for any work of his own, 
however, that this author is best known in 
recent years. Edmund Rostand, a French 
playwright, has made Bergerac the subject 
of a drama, entitled Cyrano de Bergerac , 
in which the nose figures prominently. 
This play has been presented with marked 
success in France, England, and the 
United States, and has made familiar to 
all a name otherwise well-nigh forgotten. 


BERGH—BERKELEY 


Bergh, berg, Henry (1823 1885), an 
American philanthropist, born in Ne# 
York City and educated at Columbia Col¬ 
lege. Mr. Bergh became widely known 
as the organizer of the American Society 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
in 1865, and of which he was president 
during his lifetime. Through the influ¬ 
ence of this society, laws have been enacted 
in nearly every state in the Union and in 
many foreign countries, providing for pun¬ 
ishment by fine or imprisonment or both 
of those guilty of abusing domestic ani¬ 
mals, and for the proper care of live 
stock when it is transported long dis¬ 
tances. 

Bergson, Henri Louis (1859 —), a 
French philosopher whose teaching has 
profoundly affected the thought of the 
twentieth century. Bergson believes intui¬ 
tion rather than intellect to be the trust¬ 
worthy guide. He rejects all former phil¬ 
osophers, wholly or partially, because in¬ 
tellect holds too large a place in their 
theories. He regards time 'as a great 
reality, but does not divide into the past, 
the present and the future as we do. The 
past is no longer here; the present van¬ 
ishes as we think of it; the future may 
never be. But time in the sense of pure 
duration is the only sure foundation upon 
which life rests. 

Bergson was born and educated in Paris. 
In 1900 he was elected to the chair of 
philosophy in the College de France. In 
1913 he gave a course of lectures at 
Columbia University, and in 1914 he was 
elected to the French Academy. He has 
published Time and Free Will; Laughter 
and Matter and Memory. 

Bering Sea, that part of the north¬ 
ern Pacific Ocean lying between Alaska 
and Asia, north of the Aleutian Islands. 
It is about 1,500 miles in extent from east 
to west and 1,000 miles from north to 
south. During most of the year it is 
covered with a dense fog and in winter 
pack and floating ice is found in large 
quantities. The Pribilof Islands which 
contain the largest colony of fur seal in 
the world are in this sea. See Seal. 

Bering Sea Controversy, a dispute 
between the United States and Great 


Britain over the seal fisheries on Pribilof 
Islands. From 1867 to 1886, the United 
States had regulated by license the killing 
of seals on these islands. In 1886 and the 
years following, Americans and Canadians 
engaged in killing the seals in the open 
sea, more than three miles from shore. 
This was outside the jurisdiction of the 
United States government and to protect 
the seals the United States claimed entire 
jurisdiction over Bering Sea. This claim 
was disputed by Great Britain and the 
controversy was not satisfactorily settled, 
but in 1910 the United States prohibited 
seal hunting for a period of five years. 

Bering Strait, the narrow shallow 
sea that separates Siberia from Alaska. 
It does not exceed 300 feet in depth and 
is only 36 miles wide at the narrowest 
point. It was discovered in 1728 by Vitus 
Bering, a Danish navigator in the employ 
of Russia. He also explored the coast 
of North America and the sea that bears 
his name. See Alaska. 

Berkeley, berk'le, a city of California, 
on the east shore of San Francisco Bay, 
eight miles from the city of San Francisco 
and adjoining Oakland on the north. The 
city is in a beautiful location on the heights 
overlooking the bay and the Golden Gate, 
it is served by two railroads, and has ade¬ 
quate electric interurban train service. A 
number of manufactories and planing mills 
are located along the water front. The 
University of California is located in 
Berkeley as is the State Agricultural Col¬ 
lege and the State Institution for the Deaf, 
Dumb and Blind. The population in 1920 
was 56,036. See California. 

Berkeley, berk'le, George (1685- 
1753), an English churchman, better 
known as Bishop Berkeley. He was a na¬ 
tive of Kilcrin, Ireland. In philosophy 
he taught that the belief in the existence 
of everything outside of mind is false, 
that there is no world of matter, except as 
it exists in our imagination. “Matter, so 
far as it is thought to exist beyond the 
circle of consciousness, is inconceiveable, 
absurd, impossible.” He became much 
interested in the conversion of the 
American Indians to Christianity, and ob- 


BERKELEY—BERLIN 


tained permission to establish a college for 
them in the Bermuda Islands. He resided 
for a time at Newport, Rhode Island, and 
acquired an estate, which, with a number 
of books, he bestowed on Yale College. In 
literature he is remembered for various 
sayings. The phrase, “to cheer, but not 
inebriate,” occurs in an essay in which he 
praises the mild and benign effects of tar 
water on the constitution. We conclude 
with a quotation taken from his essay On 
the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learn¬ 
ing in America: 

Westward the course of empire takes its way; 

The first four acts already past, 

A fifth shall close the drama with the day: 

Time’s noblest offspring is the last. 

Berkeley, Sir William (1610-1677), 
a colonial governor of Virginia. He was 
a graduate of Oxford. He was sent out to 
Virginia in 1641, where, except during 
Cromwell’s regime, he acted as governor 
until 1677. He appears to have been ac¬ 
tively interested in the agricultural pros¬ 
pects of the colony. He instituted ex¬ 
periments in the raising of cotton, hemp, 
flax, silk, indigo, and rice, and encouraged 
the production of supplies for the English 
navy, including tar and masts. Governor 
Berkeley was aristocratic in his notions, 
and seemed to regard the common peo¬ 
ple as a sort of rabble who were not to be 
trusted with authority or education. He 
drove Quakers and Puritans out of the 
colony, and forbade the setting up of 
printing presses. He is credited with say¬ 
ing, “Thank God, there are no free schools 
nor printing press; and I hope we shall 
not have these hundred years; for learn¬ 
ing has brought disobedience, and heresy, 
and sects into the world, and printing has 
divulged these, and libels against the best 
government.” He established a profitable 
monopoly of trade with the Indians and 
was accused of self interest. When Indian 
outbreaks and massacres occurred, he took 
no steps to suppress the Indians, fearing, 
the people believed, to impair the profit¬ 
able trade he had with them. When an in¬ 
surrection under Nathaniel Bacon came to 
an end, he had so many people hanged 
that Charles II of England called him 
home with the remark, “The old fool has 


taken more lives in that naked country than 
I have taken for the murder of my father.” 
See Virginia; Bacon. 

Berlin, ber-lm', capital city of the form¬ 
er kingdom of Prussia and of Germany. As 
far as large neighbors are concerned, Ber¬ 
lin is 431 miles from Vienna, 674 miles 
from Paris, 746 miles from London, and 
1,840 miles from Petrograd. Latitude 52° 
30' N.; longitude 13° 23' E. It is situated 
in a sandy plain 120 feet above the level 
of the Baltic. The original city grew up 
on some islands in the river Spree, to 
which, no doubt, the early inhabitants re¬ 
sorted for protection,—the first requisite 
of a medieval city. The islands, connected 
by broad bridges, are still occupied by the 
older parts of the city. The more eastern 
district has the old churches, markets, and 
cathedral. The stock exchange, the town 
hall, and the great warehouses of the 
merchants are here. 

The central part of the largest island 
was once the site of a castle. It is now 
a pleasure garden for the public, adorned 
by monuments and statues, and surround¬ 
ed partly by the old Royal Palace and 
the Old Museum. These two buildings, 
and others built by way of annexes, con¬ 
tain a series of the most interesting and 
valuable collections in Europe. It would 
be beyond the limits of this article to 
enumerate even the historic rooms of the 
palace or the art chambers of the different 
galleries and museums. Halls of former 
feasting and brilliant balls; closets where 
matters of state were weighed; tables on 
which treaties were signed; the room in 
which Frederick the Great was born; his 
saddle and sword; cradles that have 
rocked royalty; laces and bridal dresses 
once worn by queens and empresses; 
swords and weapons; armor yet showing 
the dint of the battle-ax; the knife and 
fork of Napoleon captured at Waterloo; 
precious gems and regalia, make the people 
of whom one reads seem real. Then too, 
in the museums, there are cabinets of old 
coins, portfolios of engravings, collections 
of flint, bronze and iron implements from 
the lake dwellings, crude pottery, priceless 
Berlin and Dresden ware, bronze casts, 
and terracottas. There are long galleries 


BERLIN 


hung with oil paintings by the masters of 
every school, and halls of sculpture from 
the temples and palaces of Egypt, Assyria, 
Greece, and Rome,—altogether one of the 
great historical art collections of the 
world. One might wander amid these 
treasures for weeks or devote a lifetime 
to their study without wearying. 

Starting from the Garden and Royal 
Palace, crossing the Spree by a bridge as 
wide as itself, a magnificent avenue, called 
Unter den Linden (under the lindens), 
leads westward through the modern city 
to the Brandenburg Gate. The avenue is 
196 feet wide; from the river to the gate 
it is a mile in length. It takes its name 
from avenues of linden trees with which 
it is planted. Passing from the river toward 
the gate one leaves the palace of the crown 
prince, the Royal Opera House, and the 
present residence of the emperor on the 
left hand. The buildings of the University 
of Berlin lie on the right. This is the 
greatest university in the world,—13,000 
students. 

Near the east end of the avenue and 
in front of the erstwhile palace,—in 
front also of the university entrance over 
the way,—stands a bronze statue of Fred¬ 
erick the Great. He is represented on 
horseback with his coronation robes and 
his walking stick. The various sections of 
the pedestal contain suggestive scenes and 
spirited groups of the men of his day, with 
figures of Moderation, Justice, Wisdom, 
and Strength. The statue was designed 
by sculptor Rauch, and was completed in 
1851. It is forty-four feet high and is 
considered the finest equestrian statue in 
the world. 

After the close of the Franco-German 
war, Emperor William I was extraordina¬ 
rily popular. In pleasant weather a crowd 
always used to gather along toward noon 
about the statue of Frederick in front 
of the palace. At half past twelve the 
regiment of which the emperor was theo¬ 
retically a member came down Unter den 
Linden carrying their colors and preceded 
by the regiment band in full play. The 
grayheaded emperor, clad in his red mili¬ 
tary uniform appeared at the window of 
his office rooms, saluted the troops, and 


then went back to his work. The regi¬ 
ment passed on, the crowd dispersed. 

The Brandenburg Gate to which refer¬ 
ence has been made is an edifice 85 feet 
high and 205 in length. It was built in 
1793 in imitation of the entrance to the 
Acropolis of Athens. It has five different 
passages separated by massive Doric col¬ 
umns. The middle passage is reserved 
for the royal carriages. The material is 
sandstone. The gate is surmounted by a 
copper quadriga, a figure of Victory in a 
chariot driving four horses. It was taken 
to Paris by Napoleon in 1807, but was 
restored in 1814. Formerly the heads of 
the horses pointed toward the outer world, 
but on their return, they were set up with 
their heads toward the city. 

The Royal Library with the manuscript 
and first copies of Luther’s Bible and a 
report of the Diet at Worms in the hand¬ 
writing of Melanchthon; the arsenal with 
a complete collection of firearms, the old¬ 
est dating from the invention of gunpow¬ 
der; the natural history museums of the 
university, including the collections 
brought home by Alexander Von Hum¬ 
boldt ; the palaces occupied by Bismarck 
and Von Moltke; the industrial museum; 
and many other sights of the city have 
not been mentioned. A new stone parlia¬ 
ment house has been erected. It is en¬ 
riched by sculpture without and by interi¬ 
or fittings of oak, marble, steel, and 
bronze. 

Outside of the gate there is a large 
city park with beautiful drives, wooded 
avenues and ponds, and one of the most 
complete zoological gardens in Europe. 
The Avenue of Victory is lined with thirty- 
two historical groups of statuary. Five 
minutes from the gate by street car at 
the extreme end of the gardens lies the 
suburb of Charlottenburg, noted for a 
marble mausoleum of Queen Louise and 
her husband. The recumbent figures of the 
royal pair have been executed in carrara 
marble by Rauch. The queen in particu¬ 
lar is a piece of unsurpassed workmanship. 
Every fold of her robe and feature of her 
face is as perfect as a lily. 

In population, Berlin is the third city in 
Europe. In 1919 the census gave 3,801,- 


BERLIN TREATY—BERMUDAS 


235 people. The Spree seems but a series of 
canals, but its commerce is said to equal 
that of the Rhine. Berlin is also a rail¬ 
road center with an immense business in 
grain, flour, shoes, drugs, metal work, lo¬ 
comotives, wool, cloth, crockery, leather, 
and cattle and dairy products. The af¬ 
fairs of the city are well managed. Miles 
of asphalt and cobble streets are kept 
cleanly swept. Street railways and gas 
and waterworks are owned by the city. 
Sewage is collected by an immense sys¬ 
tem of underground drains, and conduct¬ 
ed to a plain below the city, where it is 
utilized to convert a large sandy tract into 
thirty square miles of fertile vegetable 
gardens. These gardens are managed by 
the municipality. 

Berlin is no longer a provincial capital. 
Though not so cosmopolitan as London 
and Paris, it is one of the world’s great 
cities. The stir and bustle of government 
doings, the atmosphere of music and of 
art, and the great university draw travel¬ 
ers from all climes. German, of course, 
predominates, but English and French 
may be heard on every hand. 

See Germany. 

Berlin, Treaty of, chiefly responsible for 
map of Europe as it was in 1914. At the 
close of the Russo-Turkish War in 1878, 
the European powers were dissatisfied 
with the treaty of San Stefano since 
it gave too much power to Russia. At 
the instigation of Prince Bismarck a con¬ 
gress was held in Berlin, representatives be¬ 
ing present from Germany, France, Italy, 
Austria, Russia, Turkey, and England. 
Eighteen of the twenty-nine articles of the 
treaty of San Stefano were eliminated or 
modified. Bulgaria proper was made a 
self-governing principality tributary to 
Turkey, while its southeastern portion 
known as Eastern Roumelia became a 
self-governing province. Roumania, Ser- 
via, and Montenegro received their inde¬ 
pendence. Russia acquired Bessarabia, 
which she had lost by the Crimean War 
and also the fortress of Kars and the port 
of Batum; Bosnia and Herzegovina were 
put under the rule of Austria; Cyprus be¬ 
came a possession of Great Britain; Greece 
acquired Thessaly and a portion of Epirus. 


Russia, as was to be expected, opposed 
measures of the treaty but to no avail. 
The Congress re-affirmed the principles 
declared by the former treaties of Paris 
and of London that the status of Turkey 
must be decided by the powers jointly. 

Berliner, Emile (1851- ), a German- 

American inventor, was born in Hanover, 
Germany. In 1870, he came to the United 
States, and in 1879 was made chief instru¬ 
ment inspector of the Bell Telephone 
Company. One of his most important in¬ 
ventions is the loose contact telephone trans¬ 
mitter, or microphone. It was he who 
invented the disc talking machine record, 
on which the needle runs in a groove of 
even depth but of varying directions, and 
is automatically propelled across the disc 
by running in the groove. The air cooled 
aeroplane engine, in which the cylinders 
revolve, is also one of Berliner’s inventions. 
In 1907, he planned and was a member of 
the Washington Milk Conference, and since 
1901 has been engaged in an educational 
campaign against the danger of using raw 
milk. 

Berlioz, Hector (1803-1869), a French 
composer and the father of modern orches¬ 
tration, was born at La Cote Saint Andre. 
Berlioz studied at the Paris Conservatory, 
and in 1830 won the Prix de Rome, which 
he had long coveted, for his Sardanapalus. 
Through his compositions of program mu¬ 
sic he established a new school of com¬ 
posers, wffiose aim it is to express ideas, 
moods, even definite events, with music. 
Berlioz wrote the overture to King Lear; 
the symphonies Harold in Italy and Romeo 
and Juliet; the opera The Trojans; and the 
well known hymn Te Deum. Berlioz so in¬ 
fluenced the advance of orchestral technique, 
that the work of Wagner, Liszt and Strauss 
was builded on the foundation laid by him. 

Bermudas, a group of 360 small 
islands, belonging to the British Empire. 
The group lies in the Atlantic, 580 miles 
east of North Carolina, and something 
less than 700 miles from New York. The 
islands are of coral formation. They lie 
in the pathway of the Gulf Stream. Twen¬ 
ty of the islands are inhabited. They are 
noted for their scenery and a mild cli¬ 
mate. Numerous hotels are thronged with 


BERNADOTTE—BERNARD 


winter visitors from the United States and 
Canada. About 12,000 acres are under 
cultivation. The season permits the rais¬ 
ing of three crops a year, but the soil is 
productive and the efforts of the people 
are confined to raising onions, potatoes, 
and Bermuda lilies for the spring market 
of our North Atlantic cities. The islands 
are connected by cable with Halifax and 
Jamaica. Telegraph and telephone lines 
have been set up and a regular postal 
service is maintained. The islands are 
controlled by a governor appointed by the 
British crown, a council, and a local leg¬ 
islature of thirty-six members. The total 
population of the islands is about 18,000, 
two-thirds colored. The annual exports 
amount to one-half a million dollars a 
year. The imports are valued at about 
five times that sum. Americans are not 
permitted to acquire real estate. 

. Bernadotte, ber-na-dot', Jean Bap¬ 
tiste Jules (1764-1844), a distinguished 
French soldier. He was the son of a law¬ 
yer and entered the French army as a pri¬ 
vate in the royal marines. He rose to 
distinction in the army of the French Rev¬ 
olution, and became minister of war. He 
was one of Napoleon’s most able com¬ 
manders, distinguishing himself especially 
at the battle of Austerlitz. In 1810 the 
prospective heir of the Swedish throne 
died, leaving the reigning monarch with¬ 
out an heir. The Swedish legislators, so 
runs the chronicle, wisely chose Berna- 
dotte, not only for his nobility of charac¬ 
ter, but for his military talents. They 
thought he would be an admirable man to 
manage their government and to lead their 
armies in case of war. They accordingly 
made him crown prince, or a sort of adopt¬ 
ed son to their aged monarch, Charles 
XIII. As a matter of fact Napoleon im¬ 
posed Bernadotte on the Swedes. He 
proved a wise prince,—by no means a pup¬ 
pet of France. In 1813 Bernadotte led 
the Swedish forces to join the troops of 
Germany in the great battle of Leipsic 
in which Napoleon was so signally de¬ 
feated. In 1818 he ascended the throne 
of Sweden as Charles XIV. He died a-t 
Stockholm and was buried there, leaving 
an only son Oscar to inherit his throne. 


It is not often that one of untitled ances¬ 
try is called to sit on a European throne. 
Gustaf V, king since 1907, is a great- 
grandson of Bernadotte. See Napoleon; 
Sweden. 

Bernard, ber-nard', Great Saint, a pass 
of the Alps. It lies in the mountain road 
midway between the town of Martigni in 
the valley of the Rhone and Aosta in the 
Piedmont on the southern side of the 
mountains. It is the most celebrated of 
the passes by which travelers may go in 
passing from Germany to Italy. In May, 
1800, Napoleon scaled the pass with a 
force of 30,000 men, dragging their can¬ 
non and supplies with them. Their descent 
upon Italy was a complete surprise, as 
the pass had been considered impassable 
for military forces. Other armies have 
followed the same route. 

The famous Hospice of Saint Bernard 
is situated on the pass. It is the highest 
permanently inhabited spot in Europe, 
8,120 feet above the sea. The Hospice 
was founded in 962 by the monk whose 
name it bears. It was intended to afford 
food and shelter to wayfarers, especially 
pilgrims on their way to Rome. There 
are two large, stone buildings, cared for 
by a dozen Augustinian monks and half as 
many servants. During the short summer 
twenty horses are employed in bringing 
wood and provisions on their backs from 
a valley twelve miles distant. The posi¬ 
tion of the Hospice is in winter the most 
dreary imaginable. This season lasts nine 
months. Travel is, of course, easiest in 
the summer time, when from three to six 
hundred people have been fed and afford¬ 
ed shelter in a single day and night. In 
winter the roads are blocked with snow 
and are exceedingly dangerous. The 
monks maintain a number of the well 
known St. Bernard dogs, animals of great 
intelligence and strength, and with a keen 
scent. The monks struggle through the 
snow with these dogs in search of be¬ 
numbed travelers. They save many lives. 
The remains of those who are frozen to 
death are placed in a morgue near by, 
where they are wrapped in linen and laid 
away for the possible identification of 
friends. The climate is so cold,—ranging 


BERNE 


from 25° below zero in winter to 68° 
above in midsummer,—that bodies keep 
for a long time. Unclaimed bodies are 
finally deposited in a rocky place where a 
large accumulation has been made. There 
is no earth near to cover them. 

The monastery is supported by charity. 
Everyone who comes is fed and, so far 
as possible, given a bed for the night. No 
charge is made for entertainment. A 
box is placed for the reception of such 
coins as travelers may care to give. 

See Simplon ; Cenis ; St. Gothard. 

Berne, the capital of Canton Berne and 
of the Swiss Confederacy. Elevation, 
1,710 feet above the sea. The city is 
built on a peninsula of sandstone rock oc¬ 
cupying a loop of the river Aar. The 
chief streets run east and west. The bear, 
the heraldic emblem of Canton Berne, is 
in evidence everywhere. Stone bears 
guard the gate by which one enters the 
town. Bruin in stone and bruin in wood 
is the everywhere recurring ornament of 
the public buildings and fountains. A 
long, narrow street leads eastward through 
the town, lined on either side with a con¬ 
tinuous wall of shops and houses. The 
second stories project into the streets until 
they almost meet, forming a covered ar¬ 
cade on either side through which foot 
passengers take their way. At its eastern 
extremity, the street crosses the Aar on a 
stone bridge which brings one to the bear 
garden, where an assemblage of captive 
brown bears of all sizes and ages tumble 
about contentedly, walk erect, make their 
manners, and climb for the edification of 
spectators. A whole troop of wooden 
bears perform at the clock tower. As the 
time for striking the hour approaches, a 
wooden cock flaps its wings and crows; 
and wooden bears march gracefully around 
a seated figure of a bearded old man. The 
old man turns an hour glass in his hand 
and counts off the hour by raising his 
scepter and opening his mouth. The lead¬ 
er of the bears counts off the hour with 
nods of his head, while a stone figure in 
the tower above strikes on a bell with a 
hammer. The wooden cock concludes the 
performance by crowing. No child of 
Berne can be expected to proceed on an er¬ 


rand if it be near the time for the clock 
to strike. 

A fine old Gothic cathedral contains a 
number of pieces of sculpture, stained 
windows, and carved work. The historic¬ 
al museum contains large cabinets of an¬ 
tiquities from the lake dwellings and the 
tombs of Switzerland, showing in detail 
the weapons and implements used by prim¬ 
itive man in the stone, in the bronze, and 
in the iron age. There are large collec¬ 
tions of armor, spears, and other weapons, 
with the field altar taken by the Swiss 
from Charles the Bold of Burgundy, the 
time they trounced him at Grandson. A 
natural history museum possesses immense 
collections of minerals, including magnifi¬ 
cent Swiss crystals and specimens of the 
smoky topaz, fossils, birds, eggs, mounted 
chamois and other Swiss animals, fishes, 
and insects. 

When one has seen the curiosities of 
the museum and the bear garden, the 
streets themselves and the people are a 
never-ending source of interest. The 
stone paving of the old arcades is worn 
into deep furrows by the travel of centu¬ 
ries. Flights of steps rising into quaint 
old shops have been worn until they pre¬ 
sent mere polished slopes. The citizens 
of Berne are proud of their new govern¬ 
ment buildings and pleasure resorts and 
drives, but the visitor delights most in the 
old part of the town with its arcades, 
old-fashioned inns, and curio shops, where 
he is tempted to invest in crystals, gems, 
inlaid work, carved platters, canes, wooden 
bears, and carved chamois, not to mention 
ribbons and a thousand knick-knacks of¬ 
fered as souvenirs. 

On a clear day the terraces of the city 
command a magnificent view of the Ber¬ 
nese overland. Even in midsummer the 
snow clad peaks, thirty or more, present 
a glorious spectacle. 

The modern city has quite outgrown 
the old walls; manufactories of woolens, 
cottons, silks, machinery, and chocolate 
have become established, and a consider¬ 
able trade is carried on with the surround¬ 
ing cantons. The present population is 
about 104,626. 

See Switzerland. 


BERNHARDT 


Bernhardt, bern hart, Sarah (1844- 
1923), a noted actress, by many consid¬ 
ered the greatest. Her parentage was 
Dutch-Jewish on her mother’s side with a 
French officer as her father. Her birth 
record was lost in the flames of the French 
Commune, but the commonly accepted 
date has been October 22, 1844. She was 
born and spent her early life in Paris. 
Her first appearance on the stage was at 
the age of twelve in a miracle play at 
the convent school she was attending in 
Versailles. The following year she was 
placed in the Paris Conservatory, where 
she took second prize for tragedy. The 
stage folk at the Comedy Francaise took 
up a subscription which enabled her to 
remain at the Conservatory, and the fol¬ 
lowing year she took second prize in 
comedy at the above named theater. She 
made her debut on August 11, 1862, in a 
minor part in Racine’s Iphigenia. After 
five strenuous years of study and struggle 
she achieved a notable success as Cordelia 
in a translation into French of King Lear , 
followed by a series of triumphs in other 
tragedy roles. At the outbreak of the 
Franco-Prussian war she became a nurse 
and for more than a year served in a 
Paris theater, which through her efforts 
had been turned into a hospital. Contin¬ 
ued successes in rapid sequence came to 
“La Divine Sarah” following the war. 

In 1879 she received an ovation in Lon¬ 
don. She said, “The English people first 
made me believe in myself.” Tours of 
Denmark and Russia brought further 
laurels. In 1882 she married a Greek 
actor, Damala, but was separated from 
him the following year. Prior to her mar¬ 
riage she had a son, Maurice, of publicly 
unknown paternity. 

Bernhardt’s repertoire was a growing 
one, including the Sardou plays, several 
of which, Theodora , La To sea and Cleo¬ 
patra, were written especially for her. Her 
American tours of 1886-7, 1888-9 and 
1891-3, the latter extended to a trip around 
the world, yielded her a fortune. Upon 
her return to Paris in 1893 she opened 
the Theatre de la Renaissance, the scene 
of further tributes to her art, till in 1899 
when she moved to the more commodious 


Theatre des Nationes, renamed Theatre 
Sarah Bernhardt, opening with La Tosca. 

During her American tour in 1900 
Bernhardt appeared with Coquelin in Ros¬ 
tand’s U Aiglon. In 1911 she again 
crossed the Atlantic and her devotees in 
this country had an opportunity of seeing 
her in many of her best knowm roles. Her 
1913 visit to America was devoted to 
vaudeville engagements, where she pre¬ 
sented one scene parts from her leading 
plays and a one-act play written by her 
son Maurice. 

An accident from which blood poison¬ 
ing developed made necessary the ampu¬ 
tation of a leg in 1915, but this failed to 
terminate Bernhardt’s career. Her par¬ 
ticipation in several moving picture pro¬ 
ductions gave her great pleasure and she 
is reported to have remarked after seeing 
her first screen appearance, “Now, I am 
immortal.” Her final American tour came 
in 1916 when her visit to the principal 
cities was a continuous ovation. 

The following is an eminent writer’s 
estimate of her services to America: 

Of French literature we knew nothing. 
She opened that great treasure-house to 
us. She made living realities of great 
dramatists and created an intellectual 
sympathy between France and America. 

In addition to her main life work as 
an actress Bernhardt was no mean painter 
and sculptor. Two creditable plays are 
from her pen as well as a volume of 
memoirs. She achieved the distinction of 
membership in the French Legion of 
Honor. For sixty years she was an out¬ 
standing figure in her art. Her position 
as the first actress of her time is indis¬ 
putable; not so much in characterization 
as in emotionalism lay her skill. She was 
a past master in stage-craft. Inspiration 
in the suggestion of unutterable emotion 
was supplemented by the highest technical 
efficiency. And her voice ! James O’Don¬ 
nell Bennett says, “As long as they live 
who have heard ‘the voice of gold,’ she 
will remain a Golden Memory.” 

Among her successes should be num¬ 
bered Fedora , Joan of Arc, Sappho and 
the part of Hamlet in a French translation 
of the Shakespearean masterpiece. 


BERNSTORFF—BERTILLON SYSTEM 


Bernstorff, Count Johann Heinrich 

Von (1862- ), a German diplomat, well 

known ambassador from Germany to the 
United States. Count Bernstorff, after 
serving in the German army, entered the 
diplomatic service, and held many impor¬ 
tant posts in European cities, and in 1908 
became ambassador to the United States, 
holding the post until February, 1917. 
After his return to Germany the Kaiser 
appointed him ambassador to Turkey, and 
after the close of the war he returned to 
Germany. During the early sessions of 
the Peace Conference Bernstorff acted as 
head of the Foreign Office Bureau, col¬ 
lecting material to be presented to the 
Conference. He was later adviser at the 
peace negotiations. Through the influence 
of Bernstorff, several difficult questions 
were amicably settled. 

Berseem, an Egyptian forage plant. 
It is known as the Egyptian clover. In 
Egypt it is valued because it grows readily 
in lands that are only partly reclaimed 
from the sea, and is not drowned out easi¬ 
ly by overflow. It has been suggested as 
a forage crop to be raised in the southwest 
during the reclamation of strongly alkali 
lands, that is, before the alkali has been 
leached out of the soil by continued irri¬ 
gation. 

Bertillon System, a well known 
method of identifying criminals suggested 
by Dr. Alphonse Bertillon of Paris about 
1879. As now understood the system in¬ 
cludes three parts,—photographs, descrip¬ 
tions, and measurements. The descriptions 
include such items as the color of eyes, 
something a criminal is unable to change, 
hair, beard, and complexion; also deformi¬ 
ties and any special marks, as moles, scars, 
and tattooing. Two photographs are tak¬ 
en usually, one of a profile, and one of 
the full face. Criminals not infrequently 
make a tremendous effort to distort their 
countenances, so as to prevent the photo¬ 
graphs from being of value. 

The measurements taken are of certain 
unchangeable bony lengths of the body. 
The parts measured are the length and 
width of the head ; the cheek width; length 
of foot; the middle and little finger and 
the cubit, that is, from the elbow to the 


tip of the little finger; the height stand¬ 
ing; the height seated; the reach of out¬ 
stretched arms; right ear length; the 
median line in front from the fork or 
hollow below the larynx down; and, in the 
rear, the spinal column from the seventh 
vertebra to the base of the spine. The 
joints and flanges of the fingers are meas¬ 
ured,—the flanges being the portions of 
the fingers between the joints. 

Calipers provided with a graduated arch 
are used for measuring the head. In tak¬ 
ing the length of the head the left point 
of the caliper is held at the root of the 
nose, and the right point is brought 
against the occipital bone in the back of 
the head; the thumb screw is then tight¬ 
ened and the measurement checked by 
passing the instrument again over the 
head. The width of the head over the 
cheeks is taken in the same way. The 
measurement of the foot is taken with a 
caliper rule similar to that used by a shoe¬ 
maker. The prisoner is posed standing 
on his left foot, and the graduate stem 
is placed against the inside of the foot 
with the fixed arm in contact with the heel 
and the sliding arm then brought in tight¬ 
ly against the toe. In measuring the left 
middle and little finger the back of the 
cadper rule is used, two small projections 
being provided on the fixed and sliding 
arms. The finger is bent at right angles 
to the back of the hand and the measure¬ 
ment taken from the tip of the finger to 
the knuckle. 

The detective bureau of Paris has over 
100,000 of these Bertillon descriptions 
filed on cards of uniform size for immedi¬ 
ate reference. If a man is placed under 
arrest in France, his measurements and de¬ 
scription may be compared instantly with 
those of the central bureau. In this way 
criminals arrested for trivial offenses are 
not infrequently identified as wanted on 
serious charges elsewhere. Files are kept 
according to sizes, without any reference 
to the name given by the suspects. For 
instance, the measurements of men are 
kept in three classes according to the 
length of the head. These three divisions 
are subdivided according to width of head, 
and these agarn according to length of 


BERYL—BESANT 


middle fingers, which are subdivided still 
farther according to the length of foot, 
and these again according to length of 
forearm, little fingers, and color of eyes 
successively. If a man arrested in New 
York is suspected of escape from crime 
elsewhere his description, according to the 
Bertillon system, is sent to the capitals of 
Europe and to the large cities of this 
country. It is now well nigh impossible 
for a criminal to flee from his past rec¬ 
ord by a change of residence. His his¬ 
tory follows him. Properly speaking, the 
measurements alone are due to Dr. Bertil¬ 
lon. A collection of photographs of prom¬ 
inent criminals has long been a feature of 
police headquarters, and is known as a 
“Rogues’ Gallery.” 

Beryl, a well known precious stone. It 
is composed of silicon, glucinum, oxygen, 
and aluminum. Beryl crystals are six- 
sided. Usually they are pale green, but 
the color may be blue, yellow, white, or 
light red. Add a tinge of chromium and 
beryl becomes genuine emerald. Aqua¬ 
marine is also a variety of beryl. Beryl 
crystals are found in granite. They vary 
in size from that of a kernel of wheat 
to stones beyond the lifting power of the 
strongest man. Two enormous but coarse 
specimens from the granite of Grafton, 
New Hampshire, weigh 2,900 and 5,000 
pounds each. The finest crystals come 
from Brazil, Ceylon, Siberia, and China. 
The mountains of North Carolina yield 
beautiful crystals. 

Berzelius, ber-zee'li-us, Jakob (1779- 
1848), a noted Swedish chemist. He was 
the son of a schoolmaster. He became a 
student at Upsala, a professor of medicine 
at Stockholm, and professor of chemistry 
in the Medical Institute of Stockholm. 
Berzelius was a tireless worker. Among 
other contributions to science was a table 
giving the weight of 2,000 substances, 
elements and compounds, as compared 
with the weight of oxygen, which he took 
instead of hydrogen as a basis. Another 
contribution by Berzelius which will be 
appreciated by young students is a system 
of chemical notation. First he gave each 
element a symbol, usually the first letter 
or two of its Latin, or, occasionally, its 


Greek name. See table in article on 
Chemistry. Hydrogen, for instance, he 
called H, and oxygen O. To indicate the 
number of atoms of an element entering 
into a compound it was only necessary 
to add a figure to the symbol, thus to de¬ 
note water he wrote H 2 0, indicating that 
it is made up of the two elements of hy¬ 
drogen and oxygen in the proportion of 
two atoms of the former to one atom of 
the latter. Instead of a long statement 
of the composition of ordinary cane sug¬ 
ar, the chemist writes C 12 H 22 0 11 , indi¬ 
cating that 12 atoms of carbon, 22 of hy¬ 
drogen, and 11 of oxygen unite to form a 
molecule of cane sugar. Grape sugar he 
expresses as C 6 II 12 O 0 , indicating a lit¬ 
tle less carbon in proportion to the other 
elements. These expressions by means of 
symbols and weights are not only brief 
and clear, but they are understood at once 
the world over, no matter what language 
the chemist may speak. Thus cane sugar 
is written C 12 H 22 O n in all textbooks, 
whether they are printed in the language 
used in the schools of France, England, 
Russia, or Japan. We also owe to Ber¬ 
zelius many other important discoveries 
and critical analyses of chemical prob¬ 
lems. See Chemistry. 

Besant, bes'ant, Mrs. Annie Wood 
(1847-), an English theosophist and au¬ 
thor. She was born in London and as a 
young woman was a devout ritualist. Soon 
after her marriage to Rev. Frank Besant 
she became a pronounced freethinker and 
was separated from her husband. About 
1880 she became interested in theosophy, 
and was soon an ardent disciple of 
Madame Blavatsky. Since then she has 
devoted her life to spreading her views 
abroad by her writings, and by lecture 
tours. She founded in 1898 the Central 
Hindu College at Benares, India, later a 
girls’ school at the same place, and in 1907 
the University of India. She is the author 
of many works, among them Death and 
After, Man and His Bodies, Karma Rein¬ 
carnation, A Study in Consciousness, 
Through Storm to Peace, Four Great Re¬ 
ligions. See Blavatsky, Madame; The- 
osophy. 


BESANT—BETEL 


Besant', Sir Walter (1836-1901), a 

British novelist and critic. He was born 
at Portsmouth. He received his degree 
at Cambridge. He w T ent out to the island 
of Mauritius as a professor of mathemat¬ 
ics, but returned later to London and 
entered upon a literary career. In a liter¬ 
ary partnership with James Rice, a num¬ 
ber of novels were produced, including 
The Seamy Side. After the death of Mr. 
Rice, Besant wrote on alone. All Sorts 
and Conditions of Men stirred men’s 
minds and gave a powerful impetus to set¬ 
tlement work in East London and indirect¬ 
ly to work of the sort on this side of the 
Atlantic. In calling attention to the need 
of reform in existing social and industrial 
conditions, Besant in his day did a work 
not unlike that of Charles Dickens. In 
1895 he was knighted by Queen Victoria. 
Other stories of Besant’s well known in 
America are: All in a Garden Fair, The 
World Went Very Well Then, The Ala¬ 
baster Box, Dorothy Foster, and Beyond 
the Drea?ns of Avarice. 

Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush, a col¬ 
lection of sketches by Dr. John Watson 
(Ian Maclaren), published in 1894. 
These stories, illustrative of Scottish life 
and character, are held together by no plot, 
but present the same characters repeatedly. 
The book made its author famous. It 
ranks with Barrie’s A Window in Thrums 
and Aidd Licht Idylls. This is the class 
of fiction that has earned the name, “Kail¬ 
yard School.” Barrie, Watson, and Crock¬ 
ett are its chief representatives. See Wat¬ 
son, John. 

Bessemer, Sir Henry (1813-1898), 
an English inventor. He received his 
education chiefly in the type-foundry of 
his father, and early showed remark¬ 
able inventive ability. Among other in¬ 
ventions was a device for stamping deeds 
which was adopted by the English gov¬ 
ernment, and to which he owed his knight¬ 
hood. He discovered a method of mak¬ 
ing bronze powder which brought him 
commercial success. He also improved 
the methods of casting type. His great¬ 
est invention is that of the so-called Bes¬ 
semer process of making steel. It con¬ 
sists essentially in blowing a blast of air 


through a molten mass of pig iron so as 
to clear it of carbon. A small quantity 
of carbon is then added, just enough to 
convert the mass into steel. This process 
so cheapened the cost of producing steel 
that it came into immediate favor for 
rails and general structural purposes. The 
great steel industries of the United States 
have been built up on the Bessemer patents. 
Bessemer, Alabama, and Bessemer, Michi¬ 
gan, were named for this inventor. 

Bessey, Charles Edwin (1845-1915), 
an American botanist whose botanical text 
books are standard in some American 
schools. He was born at Marion, Ohio, 
and in 1869 was graduated from the Mich¬ 
igan Agricultural College. Mr. Bessey 
then studied under Professor Asa Gray 
at Harvard University. From 1870 to 
1874, he was professor of botany at the 
Iowa Agricultural College. In 1884, he 
was appointed professor and in 1909 head 
dean of the University of Nebraska. Im¬ 
portant among his published works are The 
Geography of Iowa, Botany for High 
Schools and Colleges, Elementary Botany, 
The Essentials of Botany, Plant Migration 
Studies, and New Elementary Agriculture, 
which has gone through many editions. 

Betel, a pepper-like plant of the East 
Indies. The betel leaf and the betel nut 
are from entirely different plants. The 
betel nut is the nutlet or seed of the be¬ 
tel palm. The fruit is somewhat smaller 
than a hen’s egg. The nuts are gath¬ 
ered before they are quite ripe. The 
betel nut gets its name from its use with 
the leaves of the betel. The natives pluck 
a green betel leaf, smear its surface with 
a quicklime made from shells, scrape in 
some fragments of a betel nut, and make 
a quid which is chewed like tobacco. 
Chewing causes a flow of saliva which, 
with the juice of the betel, blackens the 
teeth and stains the mouth and lips and 
gums to a repulsive brick red, almost in¬ 
tolerable. Some say betel chewing de¬ 
stroys the teeth at twenty-five, others that 
it preserves them, sweetens the breath, aids 
digestion, and gives color to the blood. 
One authority suggests that betel supplies 
a valuable tonic needed by people who are 
rice eaters, and who have no meat. The 


BETHLEHEM—BIBLE 


betel habit is confined chiefly to the Ma¬ 
lay race. 

Bethlehem, a village of Palestine 
noted as the birthplace of King David 
and Christ the Lord. Thus it is written 
by the prophet, “And thou Bethlehem in 
the land of Juda art not the least among 
the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall 
come a Governor that shall rule my peo¬ 
ple Israel.” The village is about five 
miles south of Jerusalem on the road to 
Egypt. It is a beautiful spot nestling at 
the foot of a hill covered with vines and 
olive trees. It commands an extensive 
view of Moab, the plain of the Jordan 
and wilderness of Engedi, whither David 
fled to escape Saul. Three convents are 
here; also a dignified church built over 
the grotto in which tradition declares 
Christ was born. An aqueduct brings an 
abundance of pure water from the hill. 
There are about 3,000 inhabitants who 
make a living chiefly by entertaining trav¬ 
elers and by manufacturing curios, moth¬ 
er-of-pearl boxes, rosaries, and crucifixes 
of olive wood to be sold to pilgrims and 
tourists who desire a souvenir from the 
birthplace of Christ. See Jerusalem; 
Palestine. 

Bethlehem, Pa., is a borough 56 miles 
north of Philadelphia, on the Lehigh River 
and Lehigh Canal. Across the river is 
South Bethlehem, the home of the Bethle¬ 
hem Steel Company, whose plant is among 
the world’s largest. This plant manufac¬ 
tures Bessemer steel, armor plate, govern¬ 
ment ordnance, and steel rails, drop forg¬ 
ings, iron and steel castings, projectiles, gas 
engines, hydraulic pumps, pig iron, steel 
shafting, etc. There are also hosiery and 
knitting mills, silk mills and cigar factories. 

Bethlehem was founded by Moravians 
(United Brethren), shortly before Christ¬ 
mas, 1741. The time of the year suggested 
the name. The old European custom of 
trumpet playing from a tower on festival 
and funeral occasions, early established in 
the city by the Moravians, was the germ of 
the annual organized musical festivals held 
here. The first of these organized festivals 
was held in 1901, under the direction of 
J. Frederick Wolle, organist of the Mora¬ 
vian church. On this occasion, the Christ¬ 


mas Oratorio of Johann Bach was given in 
its entirety. The Bethlehem festivals were 
discontinued from the time of Mr. Wolle’s 
removal to California in 1905 until his re¬ 
turn in 1912, when they were re-established. 
Bethlehem is sometimes called the “Ameri¬ 
can Oberammergau,” owing to the religious 
character of the festivals. Population, in 
1920, 50,358. 

Betrothed, The, a novel by Sir Walter 

Scott, published in 1825, its heroine, Lady 
Eveline Berenger, being the betrothed of 
Sir Hugo De Lacy. She is in love, how¬ 
ever, with Sir Hugo’s nephew, Damian 
de Lacy. Many trials are endured by her, 
but in the end she and Damian are hap¬ 
pily united. 

Betsy Trotwood, in Dickens’ David 
Copperfield , an eccentric old lady, David’s 
great aunt. She is bitterly disappointed 
because David is a nephew instead of a 
niece, and for a long time has nothing to 
do with him. Finally he seeks her out 
and finds her kind-hearted in spite of her 
oddities. She proves the best of friends 
to the lonely boy. 

Beveridge, Albert Jeremiah (1862-), 
an American statesman. He was a native 
of Ohio, but the family moved to Illinois 
after the Civil War and thence to Indiana. 
He graduated from De Pauw University 
in 1885, then studied law. Becoming 
well known by reason of his political 
speeches he was sent to the United States 
Senate by Indiana Republicans in 1899. 
He became prominent in the senate as a 
speaker. His books include The Russian 
Advance, The Young Man and the World , 
and the Life of John Marshall, one of the 
great American biographies. 

Bible, the Scriptures. The word is of 
Greek origin, signifying a book or books. 
Both meanings are retained. At time of 
prayers, the head of the family says, “Hand 
me ‘The Book.’ ” In the plural, the Bi¬ 
ble is a library of the sacred literature of 
the Hebrews contained in sixty-six books. 
With the exception of a few chapters, the 
thirty-nine books of the Old Testament 
were written originally in Hebrew. The 
twenty-seven books of the New Testament 
were written wholly in Greek. 

It is convenient to divide the books of 


BIBLE 


the Old Testament into five groups. The 
first five books are called the Pentateuch 
(pen-ta-tdok) ; Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 
Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehe- 
miah, and Esther are historical; the book 
of Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, 
and the Song of Solomon are poetical. 
In the original Hebrew they have the form 
of poems. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and 
Daniel are the four greater prophets, the 
other writers from Hosea to Malachi are 
the twelve minor prophets. 

The names of the different books of the 
Pentateuch define their character to some 
extent. Genesis, meaning origin, birth or 
beginning, recounts the creation. Exodus 
is the most interesting of the five from 
an historical point of view. The word 
means going forth or departure, and the 
book describes the departure of the Is¬ 
raelites from the land of Egypt. It also 
gives the Hebrew account of the origin of 
their peculiar laws and institutions. Levi¬ 
ticus is the book of the Levitical law. 
Numbers gives the results of a census of 
the Israelites made in the second year of 
the Exodus and of another made thirty- 
eight years later just before their entrance 
into the Land of Promise. Deuteronomy, 
a word meaning the second law, is a re¬ 
view of the law as given to the Israelites 
on Sinai. It is specially noteworthy for 
the beauty of its language. 

Of the historical books, Joshua, Judges, 
Samuel, and Kings seem really to form 
one work recounting the fortunes of the 
Hebrews from the conquest of Canaan to 
the fall of Jerusalem. In these books are 
recorded the sayings of Samuel, Elijah 
and Elisha, the great prophet-statesmen 
of the Israelites. In Judges is found the 
oldest piece of writing in the Bible, the 
Song of Deborah. The book of Ruth is, 
in a sense, an appendix to the book of 
Judges. It also introduces the books of 
Samuel, which it immediately precedes. 
The authorship and date of its composition 
are unknown, but it belongs evidently to 
the period in which Hebrew literature was 
at its best. Chronicles, Ezra, and Ne- 
hemiah are believed to have been the work 
of one author. The book of Esther is 


a story which seems to have no connection 
with the other historical books. 

Job is probably the most interesting of 
the poetical books. It is a dramatic poem, 
the greatest literary work of the Hebrews 
and one of the greatest of the world. 
Its authorship is unknown. The book of 
Isaiah is the greatest of the prophetical 
books. The first part of the book consists 
largely of threatenings of judgment 
against various nations, the last part proph¬ 
esies the glorious future of Israel, when 
justice shall reign universally. The book 
is notable for the beauty and richness of 
its style, the sublimity of its thought and 
diction. 

The New Testament is divided into the 
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, the Acts, the Epistles, and the Rev¬ 
elation of St. John. 

The country of the Hebrews lay in the 
great pathway between the Euphrates and 
the Nile, the cradles of ancient civiliza¬ 
tion. The route of travel bent northward 
to avoid the sands of Arabia. The He¬ 
brews were buffeted back and forth by 
the two powers, and afterward came un¬ 
der the sway of the Greeks and Romans. 
It is not strange, therefore, that the phrase¬ 
ology of the Scriptures should be colored 
by a sojourn in many lands. From a lit¬ 
erary point of view, however, the Scrip¬ 
tures of the Old Testament are related 
closely to the literature of Babylonia. The 
New Testament is decidedly Greek in its 
style and wording. 

The translators have had much difficul¬ 
ty in finding English equivalents for the 
names of peoples, cities, coins, weights 
and measures, herbs, shrubs, trees, flowers, 
animals, birds, serpents, and insects. The 
names in the original are drawn from 
many sources and lands, and many have 
not been identified with certainty. 

The question of just what writings 
should be accorded a place in the Bible 
is yet an open one. A compromise of 
long standing assigns a number of books 
a half way position in what is known as 
the Apocrypha. None of the original 
manuscripts have been preserved. It is 
impossible to state or even infer the num¬ 
ber of copyings through which the texts 


BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE—BICYCLE 






have passed before the oldest manuscripts 
now known were written. The oldest He¬ 
brew copies date from the tenth century. 
The oldest Greek copies date from the 
fourth century. The first printed book 
was a part of the Old Testament in Lat¬ 
in. The first complete printed Bible is 
believed to have been issued in 1488. Lu¬ 
ther’s Bible was completed in 1534. The 
text of the Dutch Bible was adopted in 
1637; the French Geneva Bible in 1535 ; 
the Danish Bible in 1550, and finally, 
after revision, in 1647 ; the Swedish in 
1541. The standard English Bible of the 
Catholic church is known as the Douay 
Bible. It was published in France in 
1609. 

Caedmon paraphrased the Bible story in 
Anglo-Saxon about 670 A. D. King Al¬ 
fred translated portions, but his Bible has 
been lost. The first considerable transla¬ 
tion into English was accomplished by 
Wyclif 1380-2. Tyndale’s Bible appeared 
in 1525. A score of other translations 
appeared from time to time. The ordinary 
text is that known as the King James Bi¬ 
ble. It is known among Protestants 
as the Authorized Version. It was prepared 
in the reign of James I by a committee of 
forty-seven scholars and appeared in 1611. 
This is the Bible of English speaking 
peoples, the “Book” of family devotions, 
the source of literary allusions, the book 
that gave form to the English language 
and shape to Anglo-Saxon civilization. 

A Revised Version was decided upon 
• by the Church of England in 1870. Two 
companies of twenty-seven divines each 
were organized. A committee of Ameri¬ 
cans was invited to cooperate. The re¬ 
vision of the New Testament appeared in 
1881; the Old Testament was ready in 
1884. The changes from the King James 
Bible are numerous, but most of them are 
of minor character. 

Bibles are published entire in over a 
hundred different languages. In 1907 
partial copies were issued in 409 languages. 
There are about eighty Bible societies en¬ 
gaged in circulating the Scriptures. The 
British and Foreign Bible Society alone 
issues not far from 4,000,000 copies annu¬ 
ally. The American Bible Society issues 


half as many. It was organized in 1816 
and has circulated over 75,000,000 copies. 
This society sells the New Testament as 
low as six cents per copy, and the entire 
Bible for seventeen cents. 

See Tyndale; Wyclif; Douay; 
Septuagint. 

Bibliotheque Nationale, bib'li-6-thek' 
nash'6-nal', the French National Library 
at Paris. See Library. 

Bicycle, bl'si-kl, a light, two-wheeled 
vehicle, propelled by the feet of the rider. 
The bicycle has been brought into prac¬ 
tical use within the past fifty years, 
but the general notion is an old one. The 
hieroglyphics of the Egyptians represent a 
contrivance of the sort. Frescoes of an¬ 
cient Pompeii represent figures on a riding 
stick mounted on two wheels. A stained 
glass window dated 1642 in the church of 
Stoke Pogis, the scene of Gray’s Elegy, 
represents a rude bicycle. For two hun¬ 
dred years scientific journals have con¬ 
tained accounts of various devices, patents, 
and experiments, much as our present 
journals discuss the airship. In 1816 a 
Baron Drais of Mannheim invented a 
machine consisting of two wheels, one be¬ 
hind the other. The front wheel was 
axled in a fork which was swiveled to the 
frame and provided with a crossbar with 
which to guide the draisine, as it was 
called in honor of its inventor. The rider 
sat astride and propelled the machine by 
striking the ground with his feet. The 
inventor claimed that he could go uphill 
as fast as a man could walk, that he could 
travel from six to nine miles an hour on 
a level road, and that in going down hill 
he was able to rest his feet and travel at 
a speed equal to the gallop of a horse. 

During the next fifty years, the jour¬ 
nals were full of improvements and in¬ 
ventions. Out of curricle, dandy-horse, 
hobby-horse, accelerator, bicipede, bicir¬ 
cle, and velocipede, the name bicycle 
emerged about 1869. 

The crank-driven, two-wheeled bicycle 
was first exhibited at the Paris Exposition 
in 1865, but the inventor did not realize 
the importance of his device sufficiently to 
patent it. 



BICYCLE 


The general use of the bicycle took root 
first in England where level, macadamized 
roads offered unusual advantages. Eng¬ 
lish wheels were exhibited at the Centen¬ 
nial Exposition at Philadelphia, 1876, 
giving the American public an idea of 
their utility. Prior to this time a few ma¬ 
chines had been made rather by way of 
curiosities. A little later Albert Pope vis¬ 
ited England where he found about a hun¬ 
dred establishments making wheels. He 
gathered up the best ideas he could find 
and began the manufacture of Columbias 
at Hartford, Connecticut. It is still the 
leading American city in this industry. The 
earlier bicycles, as may be remembered, 
consisted of a large wheel and a small 
one. The rider was perched on a danger¬ 
ously high seat, and was likely to take 
a header at any time. The safety type 
in which two wheels of the same size are 
employed was placed on the market in 
1887. 

The bicycle is not an American inven¬ 
tion, yet American manufacturers now 
claim to produce the best and cheapest 
wheels in the market. American bicycles 
are sold abroad in competition with the 
best European makes. There were in 1920 
fifty-one American establishments engaged 
in making bicycles, motorcycles, and parts, 
with 10,886 workers and capital of $35,- 
362,150. The total value of the products 
in that year was $53,105,895. The demand 
for the motored type is increasing. 

A number of points in the construction 
of the perfected safety are interesting. The 
invention of a padded, rigid saddle of 
hygienic pattern, mounted on springs that 
obviate the jar and jolt of old-fashioned 
“bone shakers” is one of the most impor¬ 
tant. The pneumatic tire is said to have 
originated in the use of rubber garden hose 
for the purpose. It not only prolongs the 
life of a machine, by lessening the strain 
which comes from jolting, but it enables 
the wheel to pick up the path better. 

The greatest triumph of all is in the pe¬ 
culiar construction of the wheel. The bi¬ 
cycle wheel, like that of a cart, has a stiff, 
rigid rim, but here the similarity ends. 
The hub of the cart wheel, with its axle 
and load, is supported by the stiffness of 


the spoke or spokes that happen to be un¬ 
der the hub at the particular moment. 
The hub of the bicycle wheel, with the 
weight of the frame and rider, swings like 
a hammock at the center of the wheel. It 
is supported by the wire spokes that run 
to the upper part of the tire, not by the 
stiffness of the spokes beneath it. This 
device is known as the suspension wheel. 
The first patent on record is dated 1826, 
but the general notion is credited to an 
Italian, Leonardo Da Vinci. It precedes 
the discovery of America by a year or 
two. 

The invention of the ball-bearing axle 
is due to an Englishman by the name of 
Bonn. The ends of the axle are slightly 
pointed or cone-shaped, and rest in funnel- 
shaped cavities to correspond. A circular 
row of steel balls, interposed between the 
surface of the axle and the funnel, roll 
as the axle rolls. The balls and parts 
are made of hardened steel which show 
very little wear. The ball-bearing feature 
comes nearer obviating friction than any 
other mechanical device known. 

Frames have been made of various ma¬ 
terial, including papier-mache and hickory 
wood, but they are now made almost in¬ 
variably of steel tubing. Ordinary tubing 
such as is used for water pipes is made of 
flat strips, with the edges rolled together 
and united by a seam. The tubing em¬ 
ployed in making bicycles is much more 
expensive. It is drawn like glass tubing 
from a solid ingot of the finest steel, and 
has no seam. About twenty feet of tubing 
are required to make a frame. The vari¬ 
ous parts are joined together by the proc¬ 
ess called brazing. About 30,000,000 feet 
of this tubing are required in the United 
States annually. The tubing used has 
varied in weight considerably, oscillating 
between strength and. lightness. The 
wheel of approved pattern may now be 
said to weigh about twenty-two pounds 
complete. The drop frame for the con¬ 
venience of women was patented in 1886. 
The latest invention is the chainless gear. 
The first patent was granted in 1885, but 
practical patterns were not put on the 
market before 1897. The expense of their 
manufacture is nearly double that of or- 


BIELA'S COMET—BIGHORN 


dinary single gearing. Other patents cov¬ 
er the coaster brake, pump, lamp, bicycle 
shoe, carrying basket, cyclometer, etc. 

The bicycle is not only a great conven¬ 
ience, but has done much for the health, 
especially of those who are confined in 
cities. Parks and country roads are of 
little use to people who cannot afford to 
reach them. The mechanic with his wheel 
is able to reach his work with little ex¬ 
pense of time and money. Wheels have 
done much to improve the condition of 
American roads. 

Motorcycle. The motorcycle is a 
bicycle driven by a small motor. On good 
roads a speed of 35 to 40 miles an hour is 
not uncommon and a much higher speed 
can be attained. Practically every large 
city in the United States has a motor¬ 
cycle squad on the police force, and the 
motorcycle is in general use in the army. 

See Automobile. 

Biela’s Comet, named from its dis¬ 
coverer, Baron von Biela in 1826, and hav¬ 
ing a period of about six and three-fourths 
years. It was observed at several returns 
till in 1845-6 it was seen to be split in 
two, as was also the case in 1852. Since 
then it has not been seen, but in 1872 
when calculation showed that the earth 
should cross its path, a shower of meteors 
was encountered, supposed to be fragments 
of the disintegrated comet. The same 
thing has occurred at later crossings, but 
has been less marked, as the matter of 
the lost comet further separates. 

Biennial. See Herb. 

Bienville, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, 

Sieur de (1680-1768), one of four brothers 
conspicuous in the settlement of the French 
province of Louisiana. With his brother 
Iberville, he left France in 1698, and in 
1700 constructed a fort 54 miles from the 
mouth if the Mississippi River. In 1701, 
he succeeded his brother Souvolle as Gov¬ 
ernor of Louisiana. Bienville founded 
Mobile in the same year, making it the 
seat of government. He was dismissed 
from office in 1707 ; but in 1718 he was 
again made Governor. In this year he 
founded New Orleans, which became the 
seat of government in 1723. In 1726 he 
was again dismissed from office, but was 


reappointed in 1733, and made lieutenant 
general. Bienville was concerned for the 
welfare of the Colony throughout his active 
career; but when he was superseded in 
1743, he returned to and remained in France. 

Bigelow, Poultney (1855- ), an Amer¬ 
ican author and traveler, was born in New 
York City. He was graduated from Yale 
University in 1879 and from Columbia Law 
School in 1882, and subsequently studied in 
France and in Germany, where he was a 
fellow student of the late German Emperor. 
Mr. Bigelow was admitted to the bar in 
1882, but he soon abandoned the legal pro¬ 
fession for journalism and travel in China, 
Africa, the West Indies, Borneo, Australia, 
New Guinea, India and Russia. He was 
the first person to take a canoe through the 
Iron Gates of the Danube. He founded 
and was the first editor of Outing, the first 
American magazine of amateur outdoor 
sport. He has lectured at the leading 
American universities on modern history and 
colonial administration. Mr. Bigelow was 
correspondent for the London Times during 
the Spanish-American War. He is the au¬ 
thor of The German Emperor , The German 
Emperor and His Eastern Neighbors, Pad¬ 
dles and Politics Down the Danube, The 
Borderland of Czar and Kaiser, History of 
the German Struggle for Liberty, Children 
of the Nations, and Prussians and Pacifism. 

Big-endians, big-end'i-anz, in Swift’s 
Gulliver’s Travels, a religious sect in Lil- 
liput. They are represented as regarding 
it a matter of duty to break egg-shells at 
the big end. The Little-endians broke 
eggs at the little end, and considered the 
Big-endians heretics. The Big-endians 
stood for the Catholic church, the Little- 
endians for the Protestants. See Gulli¬ 
ver's Travels. 

It is computed that eleven thousand persons 
have at several times suffered death, rather 
than submit to break their eggs at the smaller 
end. Many hundred large volumes have been 
published upon this controversy .—A Voyage to 
Lilliput. 

Bighorn, a wild sheep of the Rocky 
Mountain region. It formerly ranged 
from Alaska to Mexico and into the Ozark 
Mountains, but is now restricted to the 
head waters of the Yellowstone and the re¬ 
gion northward. There are several spe- 


BIGLOW PAPERS—BILL 


cies. The common bighorn is about forty 
inches high; its summer coat is a tawny 
yellow, which in winter changes to a gray¬ 
ish brown. The horns of the ram are very 
large, thick, and strong. They sweep 
backward in spirals, attaining a total 
length of from thirty-five to forty inches 
along the outer curve. The natural range 
of the bighorn is on elevated table lands 
or mountains, ranging above the timber 
line and below that of perpetual snow. 
Ceaseless persecution by the puma, the 
Indians, and, in later years, by the Ameri¬ 
can hunter, with his long range rifle, have 
taught the bighorn to be exceedingly wary. 
It is a strong runner and a fearless jump¬ 
er. It is considered one of the most de¬ 
sirable game animals and one which 
sportsmen find very hard to take. 

Biglow Papers, The, the name given 
to two series of political poems with ex¬ 
planatory introductions by James Russell 
Lowell. The first series, 1846-1848, re¬ 
lated chiefly to slavery and the Mexican 
War. The second series, 1862-1866, re¬ 
lated to the Civil War and reconstruction. 
These papers appeared serially. They 
were written m the Yankee dialect and 
signed with the name of Hosea Biglow. 
When partisan feeling shall have passed, it 
will be found that the rustic sinceritv of 

j 

Hosea has won him a permanent place. 

QUOTATIONS. 

Laborin’ man an’ laborin’ woman 
Hev one glory an’ one shame; 

Ev’y thin’ thet’s done inhuman 
Injers all on ’em the same. 

This goin’ ware glory waits ye haint one agree¬ 
able feetur. 

Soft-heartedness, in times like these, 

Shows sof’ness in the upper story. 

Earth’s biggest country’s gut her soul, 

An’ risen up earth’s greatest nation. 

When Lowell conceived and carried out the 
idea of putting into the mouth of a homely New 
England farmer, Ilosea Biglow, the shrewd 
rustic wisdom of the countryside, touching the 
vital questions of the day, local and national, 
with many comments in the way of introductions 
and letters by Hosea’s parson friend, Wilbur, it 
was a stroke of genius. . . . Both the homely 
idyllic quality and the canny hardheadedness of 
the New England democratic type are delicious¬ 
ly conveyed in these papers by a man who really 
knew and loved them; and with a mastery of the 
metrica 1 material such as has never been sur¬ 
passed in the history of American literature. 


With this control of the poetic mediniD went 3 
deep patriotism, a love alike of section and of 
country, lifting it all to a height of the moral 
earnestness and power such as to give the verse 
the dignity of a large vital theme. . . . The Big- 
low Papers swept the country; they were quoted 
and admired in England. Lowell became a 
power not only in literature but in American 
life.—Richard Burton. 

Big Trees. See Sequoia. 

Bile, in physiology, one of the digest¬ 
ive fluids. Bile is a thick, golden brown 
liquid of bitter taste and having an alka¬ 
line reaction. It is manufactured from the 
blood in the cells of the liver. The liver 
of an adult produces about a quart daily. 
The bile passes from the liver directly into 
the duodenum, or, if not needed for im¬ 
mediate use, it is stored in the gall sac, to 
be drawn upon later. Bile is an important 
digestive juice. It aids in breaking down 
fats, thereby assisting in their digestion. 
It separates the proteids so that they can 
be acted upon by the ferment, trypsin. It 
takes part in converting chyme into chyle. 
Bile is thought by many medical authori¬ 
ties to prevent in some degree, at least, the 
putrefaction of food. One of the func¬ 
tions of the liver is the destruction of 
certain poison-producing bacteria that 
flow into it with the blood. These the liv¬ 
er kills and sends on into the duodenum 
with the bile. If the process of bile pro¬ 
duction is interrupted, the destruction of 
the bacteria ceases. The bacterial poisons 
increase in the system and show their pres¬ 
ence by coated tongue, by headaches, dull¬ 
ness, loss of appetite, and other conditions 
called in general biliousness. Yellow 
biliousness is due, therefore, to a lack of 
bile, not an excess. Certain drugs, well 
known to the medical profession, have the 
quality of increasing the supply of bile. 
They are prescribed for biliousness. 

Bill, the name of documents of many 
kinds, and probably derived from the 
“bulla,” or seal, applied to papers during 
the Middle Ages. 

In Commerce, the term applies to the 
itemized statement of goods sold, as well 
as to the itemized statement made when a 
stock of merchandise is invoiced. 

In Bookkeeping, drafts or bills of ex¬ 
change in favor of a business house are 


BILL OF ATTAINDER—BILLINGS 


entered upon the books as Bills Receivable, 
while notes given or drafts accepted are 
entered as Bills Payable. 

In Law. Here the term has an entirely 
different application, though it is applied 
to varying documents even here. A for¬ 
mal accusation, written, is termed a true 
bill, or bill of indictment. Then there are 
bills of cost, bills of particulars, and others. 

In Legislation, the term has yet an¬ 
other application. The draft of a pro¬ 
posed law is called a bill. If the proposed 
law be enacted, the term no longer applies, 
what was known as the bill being there¬ 
after called an “act.” 

Bill of Attainder, in English law, a 
bill introduced into Parliament convicting 
a person, without trial, of such crimes as 
treason or felony, and prescribing the 
penalty of death and the forfeiture of the 
accused’s possessions. It was first em¬ 
ployed in the English Parliament of 1459, 
but was abolished in England and its pos¬ 
sessions in 1870. The death penalty was 
not always prescribed; but at best, the 
convicted could neither receive nor trans¬ 
mit by inheritance, could not testify, in 
a court, and could claim no legal redress 
for wrongs done him. The Constitution 
of the United States forbids the passage 
of bills of attainder by any state, and 
assures all accused persons of a fair and 
speedy trial. 

Bill of Exchange, an order written by 
one person to another directing the latter 
to pay to a third person at a specified time 
a certain sum of money. The term “per¬ 
son” is not used to signify only an indi¬ 
vidual, in this case, but may mean a bank, 
or other institution. He w r ho writes the 
bill is the “maker” or “drawer” ; he who 
is directed to pay is the “drawee”; w T hile 
he who receives the money is the “payee.” 
A “domestic bill” is a bill drawm and pay¬ 
able in one country; a “foreign bill” is, 
as the name implies, one drawn in one 
state or country upon a person resident in 
another state or country. 

No real difference exists between a bill 
of exchange and a draft, but common usage 
makes this distinction, that a bill of ex¬ 
change signifies what is referred to above 
as a foreign bill, which has somewhat fallen 


into disuse since the term “draft” became 
common. Inherent in the term “bill of 
exchange” is the recognition of the dif¬ 
ferent values of the monetary units of 
nations. See Exchange. 

Billiards, bil'yerdz, a table game played 
by two or more persons. It is an ancient 
game, thought to antedate the Christian 
era. The game was introduced into Amer¬ 
ica by the Spaniards, it is thought, about 
1570. The players drive ivory balls about 
the table by striking them with the end 
of a wooden staff termed a cue. The table 
is about six feet by twelve. It must stand 
perfectly level, and be made of massive 
material so that it will not shake. The 
top is frequently made of slate. A raised 
rim or cushion packed with leather or rub¬ 
ber runs around the entire edge. The top 
of the table and cushion are covered with 
heavy green felt. Green is required as 
less deceptive to the eyesight, especially 
at night. Pool, a variation of billiards, 
is played on tables that have six holes, one 
at each corner and one at the middle of 
each side, provided with pockets of net¬ 
ting. The rules of the game are too tech¬ 
nical for description here. Points are 
made by driving a ball in such a way that 
it glances from one to another, or, in pool, 
drives another into a pocket. Some 
games combine striking balls and driving 
them into pockets. Others consist of the 
one or the other. A successful billiard 
player must have a true eye and a quick, 
firm hand. The nicety with which a 
skillful billiardist can calculate angles is 
something wonderful. When detached 
from unworthy surroundings, the game of 
billiards is a delightful trial of skill, in 
itself as unobjectionable as lawn croquet. 

Billings, Mont., on the Yellowstone 
River, 238 miles east of Helena, is the 
county seat of Yellowstone Co. It is situ¬ 
ated in an extensive stock raising district, 
and the annual shipments of live-stock 
and wool are enormous. It is one of the 
largest inland wool markets in the United 
States. There are marble, limestone, and 
coal deposits in the vicinity. The city is 
very modern, having a fine school system 
and a public library. Population in 1920, 
15,100. 


BILLINGS—BILLS OF RIGHTS 


Billings, Josh. See Shaw, Henry W. 

Billingsgate, the London wholesale 
fishmarket. Billingsgate is situated on the 
Thames, a little below London Bridge. 
In 1558 the wharf was declared a land¬ 
ing place for provisions. It was made a 
special fishmarket in 1699. All fish is 
free to land without duty if taken by 
British subjects and brought in British 
ships. Retail dealers and fish peddlers 
of every degree throng the stalls of the 
fishmarket to purchase a supply for their 
day’s sales. Billingsgate wharf is the 
oldest wharf on the Thames. The fishmar¬ 
ket is one of the sights of London. The 
annual consumption of the city given in 
round numbers mounts up to 3,000,000 
salmon; 1,200,000 lobsters; 500,000,000 
oysters; and other fish to the weight of 
400,000,000 pounds. The statement seems 
almost incredible, but sales of meat and 
poultry in the other markets of the city 
correspond. “Billingsgate” is a tradi¬ 
tional name given to the language of the 
market. It has a reputation for raciness 
and force, rather than elegance. See 
London. 

Bills of Rights, a name for those 
parts of written constitutions or of codes 
of laws that especially guard the individ¬ 
ual against abuse of power by the gov¬ 
ernment. In English history, such docu¬ 
ments go far back. Magna Charta in 
1215 contained such provisions. The Pe¬ 
tition of Right in 1628 extended the list 
and defined it more clearly. But the 
English document of most note in this re¬ 
spect was the fruit of the Glorious Revo¬ 
lution of 1688. In that year the tyranny 
of James II cost him his throne. Then a 
revolutionary convention—a sort of ir¬ 
regular parliament—drew up a Declara¬ 
tion of Rights (to prevent the repetition 
of such tyranny), and offered the crown 
to William and Mary if those candidates 
for the throne would first solemnly as¬ 
sent to the Declaration. This they did; 
and a few months later, in 1689, a Par¬ 
liament in regular session reenacted the 
Declaration as a formal law, known as 
The Bill of Rights. 

These three great documents,—Magna 
Charta, Petition of Rights, and Bill of 


Rights,—constitute, in the words of Wil¬ 
liam Pitt, “the Bible of English Liberty.” 
All three contain many provisons of a gen¬ 
eral political nature, not pertaining mere¬ 
ly to a bill of rights, in the modern sense; 
but they also affirm and reiterate for ev¬ 
ery Englishman the following rights: 

Habeas corpus privileges. 

Jury trial, if accused of crime. 

Exemption, in case of conviction, from 
excessive fines, and from cruel or unusual 
punishments. 

Freedom from billeting of soldiery 
upon him in time of peace. 

Quiet possession of his property, un¬ 
less deprived of it by due process of law. 

The right to bear arms in his own de¬ 
fense. 

The right to petition the government 
at any time for redress of grievances. 

All these English documents had been 
called forth by specific acts of tyranny, 
and in every case they sought to prevent 
the recurrence of some concrete evil. They 
had made no attempt to cover the whole 
field of civil liberty; and indeed there 
were many important principles of liber¬ 
ty known to the English common law 
which were not included in these written 
laws, as, for illustration, the principle 
that an Englishman’s house is “his cas¬ 
tle,” into which even the officer of the 
law may not enter, against the owner’s 
will, except upon a special warrant and 
cause shown. 

Meantime English colonists in Ameri¬ 
ca had already begun the development of 
similar documents. The first written code 
of laws in Massachusetts, in 1641, was 
formally entitled “The Body of Liber¬ 
ties,” and it put great stress upon the 
rights of the individual citizen. Some 
even more liberal features were found in 
the one earlier American code,—that of 
Plymouth in 1636. These codes, indeed, 
made some advance upon the written 
English law of the day, providing, for 
instance, for the privilege of an accused 
man to challenge suspected jurors, both 
“for cause” and “peremptorily.” 

The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 and 
the Continental Congress of 1774 passed 
Declarations of the rights of the colo- 




BILLS OF RIGHTS 


nists; but these papers referred for the 
most part to public, or political, rights; 
and, moreover, they were merely expres¬ 
sions of opinion, not attempts to make 
new law. The next real advance came 
in June of 1776, when Virginia adopted 
the first independent state constitution in 
America. The introduction to that doc¬ 
ument is a “Bill of Rights” (expressly so 
named after English example) of seven¬ 
teen paragraphs, drawn by George Ma¬ 
son. It contains all the English provi¬ 
sions mentioned above, and it expands 
some of them. Thus, to the usual provi¬ 
sion for jury trial in criminal cases are 
added requirements that the jury shall 
come from the “vicinage,” or neighbor¬ 
hood (so as to prevent such tyranny as 
the English government had just been 
attempting in carrying Americans to 
England for trial), and that the accused 
man may summon witnesses and examine 
his accusers. 

Other provisions also had been sug¬ 
gested by recent troubles in the colonies, 
—such as the prohibition of “general” 
search warrants (“writs of assistance”), 
and the claim for freedom of the press 
and for freedom of religion. But the 
Virginia Bill of Rights introduced an¬ 
other element also, wholly unknown to 
the English documents of this nature. 
Nearly half the Virginia document is giv¬ 
en to the statement of general principles, 
drawn indeed from English literature and 
from English and American political dis¬ 
cussion, but never before incorporated in a 
constitutional document. (The common 
claim that these statements of principle 
came from French writers lacks evidence, 
and it is needless, since such expressions 
had been familiar in England for a cen¬ 
tury and a half). Among these statements 
in the Virginia Bill of Rights are the as¬ 
sertions that all authority is derived from 
the people; that all officers therefore are 
responsible to the people; that the people 
retain the right to change the form of 
government at will, and must do so from 
time to time to prevent decay. Perhaps 
the most notable passage is the opening 
paragraph: 


That all men are by nature equally free and 
independent, and have certain inherent rights, 
of which, when they enter into a state of so¬ 
ciety, they cannot by any compact deprive or 
divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of 
life and liberty, with the means of acquiring 
and possessing property, and obtaining happiness 
and safety. 

Within the next few years the other 
twelve states of the Union adopted writ¬ 
ten constitutions (most of them within a 
few months), and the majority of them 
adopted also Bills of Rights based more 
or less directly upon the Virginia draft. 
Such Bills of Rights, too, with greater 
elaboration, are found in nearly all our 
later state constitutions. 

The first constitution of our central 
government, the Articles of Confederation, 
had no provisions of this nature (apply¬ 
ing as it did mainly to states and not to 
individuals). In the Federal Convention 
of 1789 George Mason and one or two 
other delegates urged earnestly that a Bill 
of Rights should be incorporated in the 
new constitution there drawn up; but the 
proposal was rejected. The constitution 
did contain a few provisions such as would 
have properly belonged in a Bill of 
Rights; namely the prohibition of ex-post- 
facto laws and of bills of attainder, and 
the advanced and liberal definition of trea¬ 
son. The more democratic portion of the 
people, however, were exceedingly dissat¬ 
isfied; in state after state, the ratifying 
conventions called for the addition of such 
articles; and, almost as soon as the gov¬ 
ernment was in operation, the omission 
was remedied by the adoption of the first 
ten amendments, which are commonly and 
properly known as our national Bill of 
Rights. 

These amendments cover all the specific 
provisions of the old English Bills and 
most of the later ones introduced into 
American state constitutions up to that 
time. Neither the amendments nor the 
body of the national constitution, how¬ 
ever, contain in any measure whatever the 
'other element introduced into the state 
Bills of Rights,—the assertion of great 
fundamental principles. This lack, so far 
as it is a lack, is supplied efficiently by 
the popular reverence for the passages of 


BILOXI—BINGEN 


this nature in the Declaration of Independ¬ 
ence. It is worth while to compare close¬ 
ly the opening statement of that document 
with the opening of the Virginia Bill of 
Rights (quoted above) of a few weeks ear¬ 
lier, and to note the superior expression 
and better thought of the national instru¬ 
ment. Happy indeed it is that to Thomas 
Jefferson fell the opportunity to pen that 
great Declaration, and to make it speak 
with convincing eloquence (as probably 
no other man of his day could have done) 
those prophetic truths of liberty and de¬ 
mocracy which ever since have directed 

the destiny of the Western World. 

Biloxi, Miss., is a popular resort, situ¬ 
ated on Biloxi Bay, 80 miles northeast of 
New Orleans. It is near the site of the 
first settlement made on the Mississippi 
by white men, in 1699. In 1701, this set¬ 
tlement (now Old Biloxi) was abandoned 
after destruction by fire, and in 1712 a 
permanent settlement was made near the 
site of the old. For a few years in the 
early 18th century, Biloxi was the capital 
of the French territory in this part of 
North America. It was incorporated as a 
town in 1872, and became a city in 1896. 
The chief industry of this city is the can¬ 
ning of fish, oysters, fruit and vegetables. 
Population, in 1920, 10,937. 

Bimetalism, the use of two metals for 
money. Gold and silver have been com¬ 
panions in all antiquity. In Genesis we 
learn that Abram was rich in cattle and in 
silver and gold. The Greek Euripides 
declares that “silver and gold are not the 
only coin; virtue, too, passes current all 
over the world.” “Silver and gold have 
I none,” runs the biblical quotation. 

Gold has ever been regarded as the more 
precious metal. “Speech is silver, silence 
is golden,” say the Germans. The silver 
coin must be the larger to have an equal 
value. If the silver dollar be too large, 
the payer will hold it and pay out gold. 
If the silver dollar be too small the payer 
will hold his gold and pay out silver. 

At various times in the history of the 
United States, gold has disappeared from 
circulation, being hoarded or .sold as bul¬ 
lion ; and again silver has disappeared. 
Even though the proportionate weight of 


silver and gold coins be fixed by law, the 
discovery of new supplies of one or the 
other disturbs the balance. It is as diffi¬ 
cult to fix the number of ounces of silver 
worth an ounce of gold as to say before¬ 
hand how many pounds of oats are to be 
worth a bushel of wheat. 

To prevent the retirement of either 
gold or silver from circulation, and a con¬ 
sequent shrinkage in the amount of coin 
available for the transaction of business, 
the bimetalists favor a scientific ratio of 
values fixed by international agreement. If 
this standard should be fixed at sixteen 
to one, for instance, they would urge the 
government to coin all the gold and silver 
offered, making the silver of any denomi¬ 
nation sixteen times as heavy as the gold 
coin of equal face value. The opposing 
view is that some one metal should be used 
as a standard. 

Most nations of the world now adopt 
a single standard, coining gold freely and 
using other metals for coins of small val¬ 
ue. Gold is kept in circulation by making 
the other coins exchangeable for gold at 
the national treasury. Mexico is one of 
the nations to adopt a gold standard re¬ 
cently. 

See Money; Mint; Gresham. 

Binding Twine. See Sisal. 

Bingen, bing'en, a city of about 8,000 
inhabitants on the west bank of the Rhine. 
It is a center of the wine trade. The 
American schoolboy is familiar with the 
verses of Mrs. Norton’s poem beginning 
“A soldier of the legion lay dying in Al¬ 
giers.” Each stanza closes with the re¬ 
frain: “Fair Bingen on the Rhine.” 

Bingen is indeed a fair city. A castle 
still lies behind it; the Rhine in full maj¬ 
esty flows at its foot. A mile or two down 
the river stands the famous Mouse Tower 
of the Rhine. It stands on a quartz rock 
in the middle of the river. It is in reality 
an old watch tow r er. The original Ger¬ 
man name is Musen, meaning to watch. 
The modern spelling is used, however, in 
deference to a popular legend. According 
to this tradition, it appears that during a 
period of famine the cruel archbishop 
Hatto caused a lot of poor people to be 
shut up in a barn and burned to death to 





BINGHAMTON—BIOLOGY 


save feeding them. In punishment for an 
unfeeling remark that they were of no 
more value than so many mice, he was at¬ 
tacked by a multitude of mice, and given 
rest neither day nor night. He fled to the 
Mouse Tower, but was followed by these 
little animals and devoured. 

On the east side of the river, surmount¬ 
ing a high bluff, rises the Niederwald 
Denkmal, a national war monument com¬ 
memorating the victories of the Germans 
in the War of 1870 and the restoration 
of the German Empire. A noble gowned 
figure of Germania in bronze stands on an 
architectural base 78 feet high. 

Binghamton, New York, county-seat 
of Broome County, is situated on the Sus¬ 
quehanna River, and the Erie and other 
railroads, 81 miles southeast of Syracuse. 
It is the center of a rich agricultural 
region, and is a distributing point for dairy 
products. The chief manufactures are 
carriages and wagons, engines, glass, pot¬ 
tery, flour, cigars, boots and shoes, furni¬ 
ture, clocks, hats, clothing, leather, etc. 
Among Binghamton’s public buildings are 
the Central High School, Federal Govern¬ 
ment offices, a fine opera house, a court¬ 
house, and a state armory. A state asylum 
for the insane and two homes for orphaned 
children are located here. Population, 
1920, 66,800. 

Biology, that branch of science which 
deals with life. The science of animal life 
is called zoology; that of plant life, bot¬ 
any. Biology includes, therefore, these- 
two sciences, as well as a certain border¬ 
land between them. Science is unable, for 
instance, to state definitely whether certain 
minute organisms are plants or animals. 

A topic like this, uncertain of a reception 
under either branch of the subject, may 
still find a place under biology. 

In its broadest sense biology deals with 
the life of all living things, and this is the 
sense in which the term is employed in 
America, England, and France, while Ger¬ 
man scientists limit it to the general habits 
and life histories of animals and plants. 
Both Herbert Spencer and Huxley, among 
the world’s greatest students of biology, 
accept the term as signifying the science 
and study of the properties common to all 


living things, as distinguished from the 
properties of things without life. 

Men have always been interested in 
speculation and study of the nature of life. 
It was natural for men at first to think of 
all things as possessing life akin to human 
existence. Indeed, as Voltaire said, man 
did not even hesitate “to construct God in 
his own image.” But in the onward march 
of science, this view of things was discarded, 
and man began to realize the complicated 
nature of the system that governs all living 
things. The older and common belief that 
all living things are alive because of some 
vital principle or spirit of life which de¬ 
parted from them at death, has gradually 
been giving way to the modern scientific 
theory that there is no such specific vital 
force, but that life, so called, is only a 
name for certain manifestations of certain 
types of matter. Living matter is held by 
the biologist to be only “a particular and 
very elaborate arrangement of ordinary 
matter,” and while we have as yet no defi¬ 
nite knowledge of the origin of life, it is 
claimed that everything points towards this 
conclusion: “That during the gradual 

cooling down of this planet a state of af¬ 
fairs arose which inevitably led to the pro¬ 
duction, in that cosmic laboratory, of mole¬ 
cules which were alive in that they had 
the power of reproducing themselves and 
reacting to stimuli, and gave rise to the 
living things that we see today; in other 
words, that there has not only been an evo¬ 
lution of all living things from one com¬ 
mon ancestor, but of all life from not-life.” 

Spontaneous Generation. Under 
present conditions, which must be very dif¬ 
ferent from those existing when life first 
began, there do not seem to be any spon¬ 
taneous transformations of lifeless into liv¬ 
ing matter. No life without preceding life 
is now the universal rule on the earth. 
This rule is a development of modern bi¬ 
ology, arrived at after an immense amount 
of research by men of science. There have 
always been folklore and traditions to the 
effect that some forms of life arise spon¬ 
taneously, like the country superstition that 
a horsehair placed in a pond will develop 
into an eel; that maggots arise from de¬ 
caying meat, and that disease and pestilence 


arise without any other original cause from 
marshlands and in crowded communities. 
But these and like beliefs have been dissi¬ 
pated by the invention of the microscope 
and its revelation of the invisible world of 
bacteria and other low forms of life, which 
caused many of the phenomena formerly 
alleged to be due to spontaneous genera¬ 
tion. Pasteur’s experiments finally showed 
that wherever there had been an appear¬ 
ance of “spontaneous” life, otherwise un¬ 
accounted for, it was due to living but 
invisible “germs” transported through the 
air. The present attitude of the biologist 
therefore is that every organism living to¬ 
day has descended from a pre-existing 
organism. 

Protoplasm. Protoplasm is regarded 
as the physical basis of life, the living part 
of all animals, as distinguished from the 
non-living parts, such as hair, the hard 
parts of bone, or accumulations of fat or 
starch, which are merely products of life’s 
activity. The microscope shows proto¬ 
plasm to be a semi-liquid substance, slightly 
granular, and of the utmost chemical com¬ 
plexity, although apparently simple. The 
lowest animal forms are simply bits of this 
living matter, yet they contain the rudi¬ 
ments of all the properties found in the 
highest animals and the most delicate 
organs. On this structure of protoplasm, 
therefore, the biologist asserts that, since it 
is capable of reproduction, evolution has 
brought into being a million known species 
of animals and plants, ranging, as Profes¬ 
sor Huxley says, “from a whale to a flea, 
an oak to a toadstool, a tapeworm to a bird, 
a bacterium to a lily, a jelly-fish to an ant- 
community, a worm to a philosopher.” 

Cells. The body of every man and 
woman alive has grown from a minute cell, 
and itself consists of a mass of cells, for the 
most part microscopic in size. The blood, 
brain, tissue, and outer skin are all com¬ 
posed of cells, and reproduction in men 
and animals is carried out by the setting 
free of special cells. The nature of these 
innumerable cells and their varied functions 
are now the prime object of biological re¬ 
search, and new fields are constantly being 
opened for the investigation of the compli¬ 
cated machinery of living organisms, with 


the ultimate object of prolonging the nor¬ 
mal life of man by decreasing the ravages 
of disease and increasing the number of 
those who die a natural death through the 
senile decay which even the biologist admits 
to be inevitable. 

Birch, trees or shrubs growing principal¬ 
ly in the north temperate zone. The birch 
ranges farther north than any other decid¬ 
uous forest tree. Some thirty-five kinds 
are to be found in the United States, Can¬ 
ada, northern Europe, and part of South 
America and Central Asia. A shrub-birch 
is found in the colder sections of South 
America. The timber of many species,— 
the white, the red, and the yellow,—is 
valuable for fuel, furniture, and inside fin¬ 
ish. Curly birch finishes almost as hand¬ 
some as bird’s-eye-maple. Birches are 
classed with oaks, hazlenuts, and alders on 
account of their fruit, which is a naked 
nutlet inclosed, when ripe, in dry scales. 
Birches vary in size from large trees to 
the dwarf birch easily mistaken for hazel 
brush or willow. Birches are exceedingly 
graceful trees. Several species, including 
weeping birches as well as a handsome spe¬ 
cies from Japan, are valuable park trees. 

The outer bark of many species of 
birch separates into thin layers which may 
be used as paper. Many trinkets, as nap¬ 
kin rings, toy canoes, baskets, and the like, 
are made of the outer bark of the Ameri¬ 
can paper or canoe birch. The entire bark 
of this tree is perhaps a third of an inch 
thick, and contains an oil or resin that ren¬ 
ders it water-tight. It is much used for 
canoes. The bark, taken from the tree 
in large sections, is sewed over a frame 
of light strips of wood. The seams are 
closed with pitch. 

Woodsmen find birch bark an invaluable 
source of fuel. Pieces may be stripped 
from living trees, or, if rotten trees are 
at hand, the rotten wood can be shaken 
out until the bark is empty, like a piece 
of stove pipe, sound and oily, ready to 
catch fire in any weather, wet or dry. 

Vast areas in Russia are covered ex¬ 
clusively with white birch. The Russian 
peasants make wine out of its sap, and, in 
time of famine, grind the bark for bread. 
They make millions of shoes out of the 






BIRD 


bark; and spoons, platters, cups, and 
plates of the wood. Russian emigrants 
bring their effects to this country in birch 
bark chests curiously ornamented. 

The pliant twigs of the birch are pro¬ 
verbially tough. Bound in small bundles 
they made the broom or besom of our an¬ 
cestors, and are still used for that purpose. 
The Roman magistrate ordered bundles of 
birch rods (fasces) carried before him as 
a sign of his authority, and to this day 
the schoolmaster is called a “wielder of 
the birch.” 

The birch, most shy and ladylike of trees, 
Her poverty, as best she may, retrieves, 

And hints at her foregone gentilities 
With some saved relics of her wealth of leaves. 

—Lowell, An Indian Summer Reverie. 

Bird, a feathered animal. Scientists 
put much more into the description of a 
bird, as air-breathing; having a backbone; 
warm-blooded; two pairs of limbs, the 
front pair of wings used for flying 
or swimming, the hind pair, legs used for 
walking or swimming; reproducing by 
hard-shelled eggs, hatched externally; but, 
after all, the proverb holds true that “a 
bird is known by its feathers.” All birds 
have feathers. No other animal has feath¬ 
ers. At first thought, flying might be con¬ 
sidered a characteristic of birds, but bats 
fly, and some birds, as the auk, penguin, 
and ostrich, do not fly. 

In the scale of animal creation, birds 
are lower than mammals and higher than 
reptiles. A study of fossil birds, of which 
some five hundred species are known, leads 
to the conclusion that birds have been de¬ 
veloped from reptiles. The earlier birds 
seem to have been flying reptiles, with 
teeth, long tails, and scaly feathers. 

Living birds may be classified conven¬ 
iently as follows: 

I. Perching birds—thrush, kinglet, 
nuthatch, tree-creeper, dipper, 
wren, wagtail, warbler, vireo, 
shrike, waxwing, swallow, tan- 
ager, finch, blackbird, crow, 
horned lark, and flycatcher. 

II. Goatsuckers, nighthawks, swifts, 
and hummingbirds. 

III. Parrots and macaws. 

IV. Woodpeckers. 


V. Cuckoos and kingfishers. 

VI. Birds of prey—eagle, owl, vul¬ 
ture, condor, and hawk. 

VII. Pigeons and doves. 

VIII. Scratching-birds—quail, grouse, 
turkey. 

IX. Shore-birds—plover, woodcock, 
snipe. 

X. Cranes and rails. 

XI. Herons and egrets. 

XII. Flamingoes. 

XIII. Swimmers with comb-edge bills 

—duck, goose, swan. 

XIV. Fully webbed swimmers—peli¬ 

can, darter, cormorant. 

XV. Tube-nosed swimmers—alba¬ 
tross. 

XVI. Long-winged swimmers — gull, 
and tern. 

XVII. Diving birds—loon, grebe, auk, 
murre. 

XVIII. Flightless divers—penguin. 

XIX. Flightless runners—ostrich, cas¬ 
sowary. 

Bird Anatomy shows the parts of a bird; 
a knowledge of these parts is helpful in 
studying descriptions by ornothologists. 
See Figure 31 in the plate. 

< Bird Study. Nearly every one is so 
situated that he may become familiar with 
our common birds so that he can recognize 
them by their plumage and their song. 
Most of this information may be gained 
incidentally as one walks through city parks 
or takes rambles in the country. Birds are 
shy, and caution is necessary in approach¬ 
ing them. It is usually wise for the ob¬ 
server to pretend to be looking for some¬ 
thing else. Brown or dark gray clothing 
that blends with the color of the soil and 
the trunks of trees should be worn when 
one is on a bird studying expedition since 
bright colors frighten birds away. The 
most successful efforts are those made for 
attracting birds, such as placing food near 
the house where they can easily find it. If 
the supply is constant and the birds are not 
frightened they will soon become quite tame 
and allow one to approach near enough to 
observe them carefully. 

Providing nesting places in the grounds 
adjoining the house assures the presence 
of several pairs of birds during the season, 



* / 20. r / 

(a) gall bladder; (b) appendix, 


1. Alimentary canal 


FEET—2. Half web—Saber bill. 3. Lobe foot—Water hen. 4. Clawfoot—Hawk. 5. Padded 
foot—Ostrich. 6. Scratching foot—Pheasant. 7. Oar foot—Tropical bird. 8. Perching fool — 
Thrush. 9. Walking foot—Kingfisher. 10. Web foot—Swan. 11. Climbing foot—Woodpecker. 
12. Cloven web foot. 13. Stilt foot—stork. 14. Weak foot—Goatsucker. 

HEADS AND BILLS—15. Flamingo. 16. Spoonbill. 17. Bunting. 18. Thrush. 19. Sawbill. 
20. Falcon. 21. Pelican. 22. Dove. 23. Scissors bill. 24. Avocet. 25. Shoebill. 26. Gap bill. 
27. Arassari. 28. Ibis. 29. Goatsucker. 30. Stork. 

PARTS OF THE PLUMAGE—a. Frontal, b. Crown, c. Occipital, d. Nasal duct e Cheek. 
t Breast, g. Belly, h. Rump. i. Croup, k. Tail feathers. 1. Back. m. Primary auills n. 
Secondary quills, 0, Coverts, p. Pinions, q. Shoulder pinions. 

BIRD ANATOMY, 





















&--V1 ■: 


WWBBW— 


Baltimore Oriole. 
Bob white. 
Sandpiper 


COMMON BIRDS 
Screech Owl. 


Robin. 
Woodpecker. 
Mallard Duck 





















BIRD DAY-BIRD OF PARADISE 


and much can be learned of their habits by 
mere casual observation. A good bird guide 
such as Chapman’s Color Key to North 
American Birds and Birds of the Eastern 
United States and Reed’s Bird Guide is 
helpful in enabling one to determine 
species. Opera glasses are also helpful but 
not essential. There is no month in the 
year when bird study is not practicable. 

Protection of Birds. Birds are among 
the farmer’s best friends. Unfortunately 
many farmers do not understand this. 
They consider birds as their enemies and 
try to destroy them because some birds eat 
a small quantity of fruit or destroy a few 
young plants. Excepting the English spar¬ 
row, which feeds almost entirely upon 
grain, all common birds feed upon insects, 
and weed seeds. Most of these insects de¬ 
stroy wheat, corn, garden vegetables and 
the foliage of shade and fruit trees. It is 
estimated that the ravages of insects cost 
the farmers of the United States over 
$200,000,000 annually. Were it not for 
the birds, the loss would be much greater. 
The following summary of what our com¬ 
mon birds eat, for which we are indebted 
to Prof. T. L. Washburn, professor of 
entomology of the Minnesota Agricultural 
Experiment Station, shows the value of our 
common birds as destroyers of insect pests. 

Rose-breasted Grosbeak. —Extremely fond of 
potato beetles, eats hairless caterpillars, Gypsy 
moth larvae. 

Black-Billed Cucoo. —One of the few birds 
eating hairy caterpillars, devours the larva of 
the brown-tailed moth and the spiny elm cater¬ 
pillar. 

House Wren. —Ninety-eight per cent of its 
food composed of animal matter, insects, etc., a 
valuable friend in the garden. 

Chipping Sparrow. —Over twenty-five per 
cent of its food consists of injurious insects, 
plant lice, leaf-eating beetles, canker worms, 
and caterpillars of various sorts. 

Downy Woodpecker. —Feeds on borers, weev¬ 
ils, caterpillars, ants and plant lice, wooly aphis, 
apple worms, moths and insect eggs; a friend 
of the fruit grower and lumberman. 

Chickadee. —Eats eggs of tent caterpillars and 
canker worms, destroys codling moth and apple 
worm, Gypsy and brown tail moths and de¬ 
stroys plant lice and their eggs. 

Screech Owl. —One of the farmer’s, best 
friends, since it consumes large quantities of 
common mice, field mice, caterpillars, beetles, 
etc. 

Quail .—One of the most useful birds. Eats 
seeds of weeds and takes but little grain or 


useful berries, destroys grasshoppers, chinch 
bugs, army worms, potato beetles, cucumber 
beetles, May beetles, wire worms, etc. Over 
one hundred potato beetles found in stomach of 
one quail. 

Scarlet Tanager. —Feeds particularly on in¬ 
sects affecting oak trees, destroys Gypsy moth. 

Song Sparrow. —Fifty per cent of its food 
consists of seeds of weeds, also eats cabbage 
plant lice, cut worms, leaf hoppers, spittle in¬ 
sects, grasshoppers. 

One unacquainted with such work as 
Prof. Washburn’s can scarcely realize the 
patience and time necessary to obtain the 
information. Several seasons must be de¬ 
voted to observation and many specimens 
must be examined and the results recorded 
in obtaining accurate data. Bird study in 
schools and talks at agricultural meetings 
on the value of birds assist in their preser¬ 
vation. 

Government protection is now extended 
to birds by both national and state or 
provincial legislation by setting apart tracts 
of land or water such as islands and marshy 
places and regions in mountainous districts 
as bird reservations. These reservations are 
in charge of caretakers and visitors are sel¬ 
dom allowed to enter. Every state and 
Canadian province has game laws which 
prevent the careless destruction of wild 
birds. See Audubon; Archaeopteryx; 
Migration of Birds; Nests, and the 
articles on the birds mentioned in the table. 
See color plates on birds in these volumes. 

Bird Day, a day set apart and celebrat¬ 
ed in many schools for the purpose of in¬ 
teresting girls and boys in the matter of 
protecting wild birds. Bird Day was 
observed first in 1895 at O t il City, Penn¬ 
sylvania, at the suggestion of Professor C. 
A. Babcock. On Bird Day the school 
rooms are made attractive with greenery, 
flowers, and pictures of birds, and appro¬ 
priate exercises are held. In some states 
the celebration is combined with that of 
Arbor Day. 

Bird of Paradise, a family of birds 
found chiefly in New Guinea, northern 
Australia, and adjacent islands. The fam¬ 
ily is related to that of the crow. The spe¬ 
cies vary in size, however, some being no 
larger than a sparrow. The common name 
is derived from the magnificent plumage 
t)f the male, particularly that of the tail 


BIRMINGHAM 


and wings, and sometimes shoulder tufts, 
which extend frequently to several times 
the length of the body. Rich colors,—pur¬ 
ples, orange, scarlet, crimson, steel green, 
violet, and glossy black,—with deep me¬ 
tallic lusters, prevail. The commercial de¬ 
mand for the feathers has led to the de¬ 
struction of these birds in great numbers. 
All are forest birds, spending their lives 
in noisy flocks amid the tree tops. They 
live chiefly on berries, seeds, and insects. 
Some species examine the trunks of trees 
like creepers, and a few descend to the 
ground for worms and snails. Their nests 
are for the most part loose, careless plat¬ 
forms of sticks, built pigeon fashion. Dur¬ 
ing the nesting season the gay colored male 
remains at some distance, probably for 
prudential reasons, so as not to attract 
enemies, while the quietly clad female 
takes care of the nest. 

Birmingham, an important city of Ala¬ 
bama, the county seat of Jefferson County. 
It is situated 95 miles northwest of Mont¬ 
gomery, and 168 miles southwest of 
Atlanta. The Louisville & Nashville, Mo¬ 
bile & Ohio, Alabama, Great Southern; 
Illinois Central, Central of Georgia, Sea¬ 
board Air Line, Atlanta, Birmingham & 
Atlantic; Southern & Frisco railroads enter 
the city. There is a complete system of 
electric lines connecting the city with its 
suburbs and with neighboring towns. Bir¬ 
mingham is located in a valley rich in coal 
and iron—three great coal fields surround¬ 
ing it—and rises 608 feet above the level of 
the sea. It has broad, well paved streets 
and many parks, the latter covering some 
600 acres. 

Industries and Manufactures. Bir¬ 
mingham is rapidly forging ahead as a 
commercial city. Its annual output of iron 
is about 2,000,000 tons. Because of its 
large steel industries it is called the Pitts¬ 
burgh of the South. Other industries are 
cement and fertilizer factories, lumber 
mills, clay pipe and brick plants, the mar¬ 
keting of cotton, and the manufacture of 
cotton seed products. 

Buildings. The principal public build¬ 
ings include the United States Government 
building, the city hall, the courthouse. 
Other buildings are the First National 


Bank building, a Y. M. C. A. building, a 
$2,000,000 terminal station, also several 
large skyscrapers and modern hotels. There 
are, besides the public schools, several col¬ 
leges, among them Howard College (Bap¬ 
tist) at East Lake, Birmingham-Southern 
College (Methodist) at Owenton Heights, 
also the Boys’ Industrial School, a normal 
school for colored teachers, and two dental 
colleges. 

History. Birmingham was incorpo¬ 
rated in 1871. The city had several dis¬ 
asters, from which it rapidly recovered, 
but its real growth began after 1889. In 
1910 the Greater Birmingham law went 
into effect, when the suburbs, North Bir¬ 
mingham, East Birmingham, Avondale, 
Woodlawn, Wylan, East Lake, Ensley, 
Pratt City, Elyton, and West End, became 
a part of Birmingham proper. A commis¬ 
sion form of government was adopted in 
1911. Population 1920, 178,806. 

Birmingham, ber'ming-am, an Eng¬ 
lish city. It is situated 112 miles north¬ 
west of London. It is at the geographical 
center of England. It lies at the edge of 
the coal and iron districts, and is one of 
the great manufacturing cities of the 
world. It had in 1921, 919,438 people, 
rather more than our Pittsburg, which, in 
point of grime, smoke, and an industrial 
population, it strongly resembles. Cotton 
spinning and metal working are the lead¬ 
ing lines of industry. Jewelry, silver, and 
plated ware, hooks and eyes, buttons, pins, 
screws, steel pens, nails, glassware, guns, 
ammunition, locomotives, steel rails, and 
implements are made in enormous quanti¬ 
ties, not only for the British market, but 
for export to the colonies. Birmingham 
makes a greater variety of metal articles 
than any other city in the world. 

Many of the problems of governing a 
workingmen’s city have been studied here. 
The city owns its own gas and electric 
works. Water is brought from Wales, 
eighty miles distant. Public schools, with 
compulsory attendance, the tearing down 
of slum districts, sewerage, manual train¬ 
ing schools, and public baths have been 
looked after with a degree of energy and 
an honesty of management that may well 
arouse the emulation of Americans accus- 


BIRTH—BIRTHDAYS 


tomed to flatter themselves that theirs is 
a well governed country. 

Birmingham is the leading hardware city 
of the world. As early as 1727 the num¬ 
ber of persons employed in the manufac¬ 
ture of hardware was as high as 50,000. 
The city owns its public utilities. It has 
a fine sewer system, and was the first city 
in England to establish municipal baths. 
Birmingham has also constructed several 
lines of street railways, which it leases to 
private companies. It also owns its own 
markets, having bought them in 1824, and 
they yield a profit of over $50,000 a year. 
The city parks, numbering more than ten, 
are also owned by the city. In the 18th 
century, Birmingham became a Liberal 
center, and in the 19 th a leader in reform 
and chartism. It is one of the best man¬ 
aged cities in the world. 

Birth. The ancient common law held 
that a child must be heard to cry to gain 
the status of a living person. But in recent 
years more rational methods of establish¬ 
ing a child’s legal status have been 
adopted. Birth is not, however, consid¬ 
ered to take place until the complete sepa¬ 
ration of the child from its mother and 
the beginning of its independent system 
of circulation. Legally, even before birth, 
a child is sometimes regarded as a living 
person and may inherit property. See In¬ 
heritance. 

Birthdays of Famous People. 

January Birthdays. 


1 Paul Revere .1735 

6 Joan of Arc.1412 

17 Benjamin Franklin.. ... 1706 

18 Daniel Webster .1782 

19 James Watt .1736 

Robert E. Lee .1807 

Edgar A. Poe .1809 

22 Lord Byron . 1788 

Francis Bacon .1561 

25 Robert Burns .1759 

27 Wolfgang Mozart .1756 

February Birthdays. 

3 Horace Greeley.1811 

Felix Mendelssohn .1809 

Sidney Lanier . 1842 

7 Charles Dickens .1812 

8 John Ruskin .1819 


William T. Sherman .1820 

10 Charles Lamb .1775 

12 Abraham Lincoln .1809 

Charles Darwin • •.1809 

15 Galileo . 1564 

19 Copernicus .1473 

22 George Washington .1732 

26 James Russell Lowell.1819 

Victor Hugo .1802 

27 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.. 1807 

28 Michel Montaigne.1533 

March Birthdays. 

6 Michelangelo .1475 

7 Sir Edwin Landseer.1802 

18 John C. Calhoun .1782 

21 Robert Bruce .1274 

22 Vandyke .1599 

28 Raphael . 1483 

30 John Fiske.1842 

April Birthdays. 

2 Thomas Jefferson .1743 

Hans Christian Andersen.1805 

Charlemagne . 742 

3 Washington Irving .-.1783 

7 William Wordsworth .1770 

12 Henry Clay .1777 

20 Marcus Aurelius . 121 

22 Madame de Stael.1766 

23 William Shakespeare .1564 

25 Oliver Cromwell.1599 

27 S. F. B. Morse ..1791 

Ulysses S. Grant.1822 

May Birthdays. 

1 Joseph Addison.1672 

4 Horace Mann .1796 

John James Audubon.1780 

7 Robert Browning .1812 

13 Linnaeus .1707 

14 Fahrenheit . 1686 

2T Plato .B. C. 429 

22 Alexander Pope .1688 

22 Richard Wagner.1813 

24 Queen Victoria .1819 

25 Ralph Waldo Emerson .1803 

27 Dante .1265 

28 Louis Agassiz .1807 

29 Patrick Henry .1736 

June Birthdays. 

1 Ben Jonson .1573 

12 Charles Kingsley .1819 

13 Thomas Arnold .1795 

14 Harriet Beecher Stowe.1812 

17 John Wesley .1703 


































































BIRTHDAY STONES—BIRTH RATE 


28 Jean Jacques Rousseau .1712 

29 Peter Paul Rubens.1577 

July Birthdays. 

4 Nathaniel Hawthorne.1804 

6 John Huss.1369 

12 Julius Caesar.B. C. 100 

Henry D. Thoreau.1817 

15 Rembrandt .1607 

18 William M. Thackeray.1811 

27 Thomas Campbell .1777 

August Birthdays. 

4 Percy Bysshe Shelley .1792 

6 Alfred Tennyson .1809 

9 John Dryden .1631 

Izaak Walton .1593 

15 Napoleon Bonaparte.1769 

Walter Scott .1771 

23 Baron Cuvier .1769 

28 Johann Goethe .1749 

29 Oliver Wendell Holmes.1809 

September Birthdays. 

6 Lafayette .1757 

7 Queen Elizabeth .1533 

15 James Fenimore Cooper .1789 

18 Samuel Johnson .1709 

21 Savonarola .1452 

27 Samuel Adams .1722 

October Birthdays. 

4 Jean Francois Millet.1814 

6 Jenny Lind .1820 

14 William Penn .1644 

16 Noah Webster.1758 

21 Samuel T. Coleridge.1772 

25 Thomas B. Macaulay .1800 

29 John Keats .1795 

November Birthdays. 

1 Marie Antoinette .1755 

3 William Cullen Bryant .1794 

7 Mary, Queen of Scots .1542 

10 Martin Luther .1483 

Oliver Goldsmith .1728 

15 William Cowper .1731 

22 George Eliot .1819 

29 Wendell Phillips .1811 

30 Jonathan Swift .1667 

December Birthdays. 

4 Thomas Carlyle .1795 

9 John Milton .1608 

Gustavus Adolphus .1594 

13 William Lloyd Garrison.1805 

Phillips Brooks.1835 

16 Ludwig Beethoven .1770 

17 John G. Whittier.1807 


25 Isaac Newton .1642 

26 Thomas Gray . «..1716 

29 William Ewart Gladstone.1809 


Birthday Stones, gems considered par¬ 
ticularly appropriate for birthday gifts. 
Any precious or semi-precious stone is 
considered appropriate as a setting in an 
article of jewelry intended for a birthday 
present. A preference for certain stones 
for certain months of the year has grown 
up, perhaps unconsciously. It would be 
difficult to trace the association between 
the month and the stone deemed appro¬ 
priate. The popular list is: 


January . 
February 
March . . 
April 
May .... 
June ... 

July. 

August . . 
September 
October . 
November 
December 


. Garnet 

. . . Amethyst 
. Bloodstone 
. . . Diamond 
. .. Emerald 
Lapis Lazuli 

.Ruby 

. Moonstone 
.. . Sapphire 

.Opal 

.Topaz 

. . Turquoise 


Birth-Rate, is the number of births per 

year for a given unit of population, usually 
1,000. A study of the birth-rate of Euro¬ 
pean nations and the United States for the 


half century ending with 1920 shows a 
marked decline. In the United States there 


were 35.1 births per 1,000; in 1920 the 
birth-rate was 23.7 per thousand; in 1921 
it was 24.3 per thousand. 

Among the European nations, before the 


great war, I’ranee had the lowest birth-rate, 
24.6; Hungary had the highest, 42.2. 

I he following are pre-war records: 

Australia . c 

Austria . 35 0 

Belgium . .‘.*27.5 

Denmark . 292 

Ger many . ....20.9 

India .48.0 

Ireland . 2 3.6 

} T ta, y .. 

Norway . 27 9 

f ru s sia . 

Scotland .28.6 

®P ai " .35.6 

Sweden . 25 7 

United Kingdom . 













































































BISBEE—BISMARCK 


Bisbee, a city of southern Arizona, sit¬ 
uated in a canon of the Mule-Pass Moun¬ 
tains and on the El Paso and Southwest¬ 
ern Railroad. The city is notable especial¬ 
ly for its copper mines, the Copper Queen 
and the Calumet and Arizona, which are 
among the richest of the world. The city 
is well built and prosperous, has an excel¬ 
lent school system, a public library, city 
waterworks, electric lights, and electric 
street cars. Its population in 1920 was 
9,205. 

Biscuit, bis'kit, a word which has come 
into our language through the French, 
from the Latin, and means literally twice- 
baked. Gibbon, the historian, tells us that 
the biscuits of the Roman soldiers were 
actually prepared twice in the oven. The 
term has come to be used to designate a 
hard, dry bread made without yeast, bak¬ 
ing-powder or soda, usually formed into 
small, flat cakes. 

In the United States, the word biscuit 
is used as defined above by manufacturers 
and dealers, and appears on packages of 
the various kinds of these articles, but in 
everyday use it is far less common than 
the term cracker. At the home table, bis¬ 
cuits are small, round, soft cakes made of 
milk and flour, with salt, a little lard for 
shortening and baking powder or soda to 
raise them. If lightened with yeast they 
are called raised biscuit, or more com¬ 
monly, rolls. 

The manufacture of biscuits or crack¬ 
ers is done by machinery entirely, and as 
anyone knows who visits groceries, the 
variety is endless. The dough is mixed 
and kneaded in a machine, rolled between 
iron rollers and carried to the cutting ma¬ 
chine on webs of canvas. The scraps re¬ 
maining from the cutting are carried back 
automatically to the rollers and the process 
repeated. The crackers are carried to the 
oven on a traveling frame of wire gauze. 
After baking, they are packed in boxes by 
machinery, so that in a model factory the 
biscuits are never touched by the hand 
from start to finish. See \ east ; Bread. 

Bishop, literally an overseer, from the 
Greek episcopus. In the Greek, the Catho¬ 
lic, and the Episcopal churches, the name 
is given to those priests of the highest 


order who are held to be the successors 
of the twelve apostles. In Russia the 
bishops are appointed by the czar who is 
the head of the church. In Catholic 
countries the practice varies. The bishops 
are named, however, either directly by 
the pope, or by an agreement between the 
pope and sovereign. In the Church of 
England bishops are named by the sov¬ 
ereign. Of twenty-eight English bishops 
twenty-six are entitled to a seat in the 
House of Lords. In the United States the 
title is used in the Catholic, Episcopal, 
and Methodist churches. In general the 
bishop is supposed to travel and visit the 
various churches in his charge, examining 
into and settling difficulties, confirming 
members, and advancing the interests of 
his congregations. His home church in 
which he has a pulpit, a chair, or cathe¬ 
dra, is called a cathedral. See Arch¬ 
bishop. 

Bismarck, biz'mark (1815-1898), a 
German statesman. His full name is Otto 



Bismarck, on his seventieth birthday, 
April 1, 1885, 













BISMARCK 


Eduard Leopold Bismarck-Schoenhausen. 
He was born at Schoenhausen, in Branden¬ 
burg, April 1, 1815, and died at Fried- 
richsruh, July 30, 1898. Bismarck was a 
university student of Gottingen, Berlin, 
and Greifswald, and served his regular 
term in the army. He devoted his early 
manhood to the management of the pa¬ 
ternal estates. He came to notice in 1849 
as a member of the Diet of Prussia. He 
was a man of massive, commanding ap¬ 
pearance, who knew his own mind. He 
was recognized at once as a new force in 
Prussian politics. He was appointed 
Prussian delegate at Frankfort, where he 
met representatives from other German 
states, among whom he contracted friend¬ 
ships and enmities that lasted through 
life. 

At this time Austria was the dominating 
influence in the German Confederation. 
Her representative carried himself, it 
was thought, in a supercilious manner. 
Bismarck was recognized at once as a man 
of powerful intellect and individuality. 
He became the leader of anti-Austrian 
forces. To go into Bismarck’s career 
would be to write the history of Germany 
for a period of thirty years. To set aside 
Austria and make Prussia the leading Ger¬ 
man state became the ruling ambition of 
his life. We must be content with say¬ 
ing that under King William of Prussia, 
afterward Emperor William I of Ger¬ 
many, Bismarck, the prime minister, Von 
Roon, minister of war, and Moltke, com¬ 
mander of the army, built up the most 
efficient army on the face of the globe. 
They robbed Denmark of Schleswig Hol¬ 
stein in 1864, expelled Austria from the 
German Confederacy in the Six Weeks’ War 
of 1866, and humiliated Napoleon III in 
the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. 
Bismarck was the leading spirit in it all. 
Though others wavered, he never did. At 
a meeting of the representatives of the 
northern German states, held in the mag¬ 
nificent hall of Versailles during the siege 
of Paris, Bismarck had the satisfaction of 
hearing his king proclaimed emperor of 
Germany. 

Bismarck was a wonderful man for hav¬ 
ing his own way. He used to say that 


his greatest diplomatic successes came 
from saying exactly what he meant. While 
others accustomed to a more politic or 
deceptive way of speaking were looking 
for some hidden meaning, he carried his 
point. He was arbitrary. At one time he 
sent the Prussian legislature home because 
it would not vote money. He announced 
that the government would get on without 
a legislature. At times he was hampered 
by the jealousy of his fellow officials, and 
there was always a chance that some one 
might supplant him in the affections of the 
king. He says himself that more than 
once he waited in the king’s anteroom 
trembling from head to foot lest the per¬ 
son then holding audience with the king, 
possibly a foreign ambassador, might in¬ 
duce William to adopt some unwise meas¬ 
ures and overthrow all his plans. At the 
close of the war with France, he was 
loaded with titles and wealth, and was rec¬ 
ognized as the foremost man in Europe. 
If ever a man built up an empire Bis¬ 
marck did. It is not pleasant to know 
that in his later days the successors of his 
old king and emperor slighted him, and 
turned him off, 1890, like an old horse 
that had served its days of usefulness. It 
is safe to say that no other man of his 
century accomplished so much in the polit¬ 
ical field as did Bismarck. 

Although Bismarck had reason to re¬ 
sent the treatment he received from his po¬ 
litical enemies in Berlin, it must not be 
supposed that he ended his days in neg¬ 
lect. His private means were sufficient. 
His home and grounds at Friedrichsruh 
were comfortable, spacious, and beautiful. 
He was happy in all his family relations. 
He delighted in books, walks, drives, and 
hospitality. A secretary relieved him of 
the drudgery of correspondence. 

The eightieth anniversary of his birth¬ 
day was observed by half Europe. Six¬ 
ty-eight thousand gas jets “lit Lombard 
Bridge—Hamburg’s Rialto.” Delegations 
from twenty-eight German universities 
came from the Baltic, the plains, and the 
Alps to Friedrichsruh to pay their re¬ 
spects and honor the Unifier of Germany. 
Four thousand students, led by six mili¬ 
tary bands, appeared on the lawn with 


BISMARCK—BISON 


eagle-emblazoned banners. They shouted 
themselves hoarse on the appearance of the 
man who was more to them than em¬ 
peror and marched away singing Die 
Wacht am Rhine. Thirty-five special 
trains brought visitor's. Seventy newspa¬ 
per correspondents and five special tele¬ 
graph wires told the world of gifts, 
speeches, and greetings. It was the great¬ 
est ovation ever accorded a person in pri¬ 
vate life—a greeting such as the American 
people might have extended to Abraham 
Lincoln had he lived to a similar age. 
Some notion of the stir may be had from 
the statement that the village postoffice 
handled 11,475 telegrams comprising 450,- 
000 words. Bismarck received several 
thousand telegrams, 1,044 packages, 955 
registered letters, and 450,000 ordinary 
letters and pieces of mail during the birth¬ 
day week. 

Professor Andrew D. White, United 
States ambassador at Berlin, who had 
every opportunity to know the great states¬ 
man, characterized Bismarck as, “big 
rumbling, heavy, fiery, minatory, objurga¬ 
tory,—the greatest German since Luther.” 

See Germany; Franco-Prussian War. 

Bismarck, biz'mark, the capital city of 
North Dakota. It is situated on the Mis¬ 
souri River and on the Northern Pacific, 
and the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault 
Ste. Marie railroads. Bismarck is important 
as a trading center being the base of sup¬ 
plies for the Indian agencies and military 
forts, and is the seat of a large and rapidly 
growing wholesale trade. The state capi- 
tol is the most noteworthy building. The 
state penitentiary, two hospitals, the state 
library, county courthouse, and a govern¬ 
ment Indian school are here. Among in¬ 
dustries may be mentioned flour mills, 
grain elevators, and machine shops. Bis¬ 
marck was the capital of Dakota Terri¬ 
tory from 1883 to 1889 when it was made 
capital of the state of North Dakota. Its 
population in 1920 was 6951. 

Bismuth, a metallic element. Specific 
gravity 9.82. Bismuth melts at 510° F. 
It is of a light reddish color. It resem¬ 
bles lead in some respects, but it is so brit¬ 
tle that it crumbles into a powder under 
the hammer. Bismuth is seldom used by it¬ 


self in the arts, but its alloys are of com¬ 
mercial importance. Lead is hardened and 
toughened by the addition of bismuth. A 
soft solder, consisting of one part of bis¬ 
muth, one of tin, and one of lead, is used 
by pewter workers. A second alloy con¬ 
taining five parts of bismuth, three of lead, 
and twenty of tin is used in stereotyping. 
This alloy melts at the boiling point of 
water. Metallic plugs of a similar alloy 
have been used in steam boilers, the idea 
being that they would melt when the heat 
rose beyond a certain point, and permit 
the escape of steam without bursting the 
boiler; but these plugs harden when in use 
and cannot be depended upon to melt at 
the critical moment. 

One compound of bismuth is used in 
medicine as an astringent. In large doses 
it acts as a poison, and, when applied to 
the face as a cosmetic, it is said to para¬ 
lyze the nerves. Bismuth is the basis of 
so-called sympathetic inks. 

The Americana states that not over fifty 
tons of bismuth are used annually, and 
that the price ranges all the way ‘from fif¬ 
ty cents to five dollars a pound. The met¬ 
al is obtained from mines of Saxony, Aus¬ 
tria, Norway, Cornwall, Spain, California, 
New South Wales, and certain mountain¬ 
ous districts of South America. 

Bison, or Buffalo, a wild animal of the 
ox kind, closely related to the wild ox or 
bison of Europe, but not to the Old World 
buffalo. It formerly ranged over the 
greater part of North America. Herds 
were known certainly in New York and 
Virginia. They were once abundant in 
the prairies and openings from the Ten¬ 
nessee River to the Great Lakes, but the 
natural home of the buffalo may be said to 
have been the grassy plain extending from 
Texas to Great Slave Lake. They pene¬ 
trated the passes and parks of the Rocky 
Mountains, but are not known to have 
grazed west of the Sierra Nevada range. 
The extension of settlements early drove 
the buffalo westward across the Mississip¬ 
pi. After the Civil War, the building of the 
Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific railways 
cut their range into fragments. Trains 
were not infrequently impeded in early 
days by immense droves, but the murder- 


BISON 


ous fire of passengers and the still more 
destructive methods of innumerable hunt¬ 
ing parties, many of them from Europe, 
that slaughtered for the pleasure of kill¬ 
ing, or for the sake of pelts, cleared the 
central part of the range as early as 1875. 
The southern buffaloes were all killed off 
as early, it is said, as 1890. Congress made 
the first appropriation fof the purchase 
and maintenance of bison in 1902, at which 
time there were only 1,750 of these animals 
alive. There are now about 10,000 of 
them, 6,000 in Canada and 4,000 in the 
United States. In the United States gov¬ 
ernment herds there are 1,250 bison, all 
but about 130 of which were born on reser¬ 
vations. The largest herd, 560 head, is 
in Yellowstone Park. Montana Bison 
range has about 400, the Wichita Preserve 
over 125, and Wind Cave over 70. A 
small herd lives peacefully in the Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., Zoological Gardens. 

Canadian Herds. With the exception 
of one herd of woods bison, estimtaed to 
number about 500 head, the bison has long 
since disappeared from his native haunts. 
In 1909, however, the Canadian govern¬ 
ment placed 400 animals in Wainwright 
Park, Alberta. Occasional additions and 
the natural growth of the herd increased 
this number to 6,000. This is the largest 
herd of bison in the world. A much 
smaller herd, numbering about 300, Us 
kept at Lamont, Alberta, in Elk Island 
Park, and a few animals are also kept for 
exhibition at Banff. 

Buffaloes differ from cattle only in ap¬ 
pearance. The head of the bison is broad, 
with short, outwardly curved horns, and 
covered w r ith a shaggy mop of hair almost 
concealing the small eyes. The hair is 
crisp and woolly, and easily woven into 
cloth or twisted into ropes. 

Buffalo society was organized not un¬ 
like that of cattle. A unit consisted of a 
patriarchal old bull in the lead, followed 
by several cows and their young. Whether 
going to pasture or seeking water, each 
family traveled in single file. In the 
springtime, thousands of families marched 
in search of new pastures together, form¬ 
ing vast herds extending farther than the 
eye could reach. On the approach of win¬ 


ter these nomadic animals again turned 
southward, or retired into the sheltered 
valleys of the rivers and mountain ranges. 
When pursued on the plain, the buffalo 
ran with a lumbering gallop, holding its 
head so low that its front feet rose and 
fell past the side of the head. In its 
migrations the buffalo swam with ease and 
climbed with agility, but naturally fol¬ 
lowed the easiest lines of travel. Its sharp 
hoofs, passing and repassing in countless 
thousands for season after season, cut deep 
trails in the prairie turf and mountain 
passes of which portions may be seen to 
this day. Surveyors locating a road or rail¬ 
way across the then unknown mountain 
ranges found it expedient to follow the 
pathways of this native engineer. Coy¬ 
otes and wolves followed these migrations 
to drag down calves, spent buffaloes, or 
some chance male wounded in a contest 
with his rivals, and buzzards kept a look¬ 
out for a share in the spoils. In fly time 
the buffalo was fond of a wallow in the 
mud, or of throwing sand and gravel over 
himself by pawing or tossing his horns. 
Settlers find buffalo bones in the swamps 
they now drain for meadows. Buffalo 
pits worn deep by ages of pawing and 
scraping may still be seen. 

The buffalo has played no small part in 
the life of the western Indian, taking the 
place of the Virginia deer of the Atlantic 
coast and forest region. Buffalo meat.— 
fresh, smoked, dried, or converted into 
pemmican,—furnished a staple and often 
the sole article of food. The Indian made 
his moccasins of buffalo hide and slept be¬ 
tween buffalo robes. The Mandan crossed 
the Missouri in a buffalo-hide canoe like 
the coracle of the ancient Briton. During 
the Indian summer, an Indian band gave 
itself up to a buffalo hunt. Mounted on 
his well trained pony, which he guided 
with his knees, the warrior dashed into a 
herd, racing along by the side of a selected 
animal until he had brought it down with 
bow and arrow, then along the side of an¬ 
other, until the plain was strewn with car¬ 
casses for the drudging squaws to recover. 

Parkman’s Oregon Trail, a book that 
every boy ought to read, gives an excel¬ 
lent account of the buffalo. Writing of the 





BITTERN—BJORNSON 


Dakota Indians in 1847 when buffaloes 
yet grazed in large herds in Iowa and Min¬ 
nesota, he says, “The buffalo supplies them 
with the necessaries of life, with habita¬ 
tions, food, clothing, beds, and fuel; 
strings for their bows, glue, thread, cord¬ 
age, trail-ropes for their horses, coverings 
for their saddles, vessels to hold water, 
boats to cross streams, and the means of 
purchasing what they most need from the 
traders. When the buffalo are extinct, 
they too must dwindle away.” 

See Aurochs; Buffalo; Cattalo. 

Bittern, a wading bird closely related 
to the heron. The common American bit¬ 
tern breeds from the central part of the 
United States northward, and passes the 
winter in the South Atlantic and Gulf 
states. Unlike the heron, it is a most un¬ 
attractive bird. It is about twenty-eight 
inches in length, and has a slender, mea¬ 
ger, buffy-brown, streaked appearance, 
hardly distinguishable from old grass. 
When alarmed it has a habit of standing 
in a sort of rigor, with its long bill held 
upright, like a dead weed. Even a practiced 
eye will pass it carelessly by for a clump 
of old weeds and grass. Long, loose, 
fluffy, drooping feathers about the neck 
and breast aid in deceiving the eye. 

The bittern lives solitary in marshy 
places, picking up frogs and snakes which 
it prefers to mangle by threshing them on 
the ground before it swallows them. Three 
to five pale olive buff eggs are deposited 
in a grass-built nest amid the rushes of 
some marsh. The voice of the bittern is 
peculiar. Sometimes it sounds not un¬ 
like an old wooden pump out of order, 
from which the bird gets the name of 
“thunder pumper.” Sometimes the call 
sounds surprisingly like that made by driv¬ 
ing a stake with an ax, whence the name, 
“stake driver.” A far less elegant but no 
less appropriate name is that of shite- 
poke” given by Dutch settlers. 

A smaller, darker colored bird, the 
least bittern, thirteen inches long, has a 
somewhat more southern summer and win¬ 
ter range. It has a soft voice. Its habits 
are similar to those of its larger relative. 
Pale bluish white eggs, three to six in a 
grassy nest among rushes or in a low bush. 


Bitterroot, a plant native to the North¬ 
ern United States and to Canada. It is 
a member of the dogbane family, and de¬ 
rives its name from its long, tapering, 
fleshy root, which, though bitter, is 
esteemed as an article of food by Indians 
and whites. The plant bears on its fleshy 
stem a single rose-colored blossom that 
remains open only in the sunshine. The 
bitterroot is the state flower of Montana 
and gave its name to Bitterroot Valley. 

Bittersweet, a shrubby climber. It 
grows along streams and in thickets. It is 
related to the waahoo and the strawberry- 
bush. A profusion of orange colored ber¬ 
ries, the size of peas, opens late in autumn, 
making a fine display of the scarlet cover¬ 
ings of the seeds. J. G. Holland has cho¬ 
sen Bitter-Sweet as the title of a poem in 
which he aims to teach that life contains 
a share of both elements. 

Bitumen. See Asphalt; Petroleum. 

Bjornson, byern'son, Bjornstjerne, 
byern'sherne (1832-1910), a Norwegian 
poet, dramatist, and novelist. He was born 
at Kvikne. He was educated at the Univer- 
sity of Christiania and became a writer for 
periodicals. He wrote powerful dramas 
and novels, but his stories of Norwe¬ 
gian peasant life, Arne, A Happy Boy, 
The Fisher Maiden, and Synnove Solbak- 
ken, are known and loved more widely than 
any of his other works. In his later writ¬ 
ings he showed himself “an advocate of 
extreme republicanism in politics and free 
thought in religion.” Bankruptcy, The 
King, The Glove, Beyond His Strength, 
and The Editor may be mentioned among 
Bjornson’s dramas. The Heritage of the 
Kurts and In Gold’s Way are later novels. 

He is the greatest distinctively Norwegian 
writer of his day and his popularity among his 
countrymen is very great.— Americana. 

Bjornson shares with Ibsen the literary su¬ 
premacy of Norway. The former is its hero 
and prophet as the latter is its judge.—Burton, 
Literary Likings. 

With his deadi will pass away the last of 
that immortal trio, Ibsen, Grieg, and Bjornson, 
who shed the luster of their genius on little 
Norway. With Bjornson will come to an end 
the remarkable golden age of Norwegian cul¬ 
ture. Not that Norwegian culture is dead. By no 
means. But its vikings, the men who sallied 
forth on the seas of cultural adventure, when thf 


BLACK—BLACK ARROW 


/ 


national consciousness was beginning to wake 
after its long sleep, are gone. 

Bjornson is the last of the giants, and in 
some ways the greatest. To Norway, at any 
rate, he was the greatest, for he more than any 
other, was the personification of the nation, of 
its character, its aspirations, its ideals. Ibsen, 
the world knows better, because Ibsen, mighty 
Thor of Pessimism, hammered away at man¬ 
kind in the mass, at human nature in its weak¬ 
ness, at the hopelessness of life because of that 
weakness. His hammer-strokes resounded 
around the globe. They appalled and fascinated 
the world. 

Bjornson was Ibsen’s complete antithesis. 
He was ever the optimist, the hopeful, inspiring, 
fighting optimist. Plis gonfalon ever waved in 
the forefront of battle, but it was always Nor¬ 
way’s battles and not the world’s disputes that 
interested him most. He was first and fore¬ 
most a patriot. After that he was a poet, a 
teller of folk tales, a writer of home plays, a 
red republican, a reformer. 

He wrote the inspiring song poem, “Yes, We 
Love This Land,” which bursts from Norwegian 
throats on every national occasion. Impulsive, 
generous, candid and obstinate, he was the Boy , 
of Norway who never grew up. Up to that 
very dark day when disease laid him low, he 
was full of the joy of life, of the juvenile spirit 
of enjoyment. Around his peasant’s house on 
the hillside at Aulestad floated the flags of all 
nations. It was a veritable shrine in these 
latter days to which journeyed many visitors to 
Norway. They found it more than a shrine 
—a patriarchal family, with the silver-haired, 
frank, impulsive Bear-Star, Son of Bear, at its 
head, and his motherly, faithful old wife at 
his side .—Minneapolis Journal. 

Black, Adam (1784-1874), a Scottish 
bookseller and publisher. He was a na¬ 
tive of Edinburgh. He began his business 
career as a bookseller. Later he took a 
nephew into partnership. He was an en¬ 
terprising, intelligent man of large capac¬ 
ity and public spirit. The most noted 
publications of the firm were the Encyclo¬ 
pedia Britannica, and Scott’s IVaverley 
Novels. The successors of the original 
partners are still engaged in the publication 
of miscellaneous works and school books. 

Black, William (1841-1898), a Scot¬ 
tish novelist. He was a native of Glas¬ 
gow. He acquired his facility with the 
pen in writing for Glasgow newspapers 
and in reporting the Austro-Prussian War 
of 1866 for the London Morning Star. He 
wrote a large number of novels. The 
more noted are perhaps A Daughter of 
Heth, The Strange Adventures of a Phae¬ 
ton, A Princess of Thule, Madcap Violet 
1-26 


Macleod of Dare, White Wings, and In 
Far Lochaber. His admirers would doubt¬ 
less include others. The scene of several 
tales is laid in the extreme northern part 
of Scotland and in the western isles. Black 
is an interesting writer. His novels are 
well worth reading, but he is no such wiz¬ 
ard as Sir Walter Scott. He describes 
wild scenery, the fishers, boats, and vil¬ 
lage life well; but his writing seems to be 
that of a summer tourist, rather than of 
one who has lived among the people. 
Whatever he may say of folk lore or of 
antiquities is the result apparently of in¬ 
formation picked up carelessly. It is nev¬ 
er a part of himself. 

Black Arrow, The, a tale of the War 
of the Roses, a story of adventure by Rob¬ 
ert Louis Stevenson, published in 1888. 
The tale is one of Stevenson’s best. Sir 
Daniel Brackley, who shifts from one civ¬ 
il faction to another, as he may fancy is 
for his interest, compassed the death of 
his brother and held the guardianship of 
his young nephew Dick, that he might en¬ 
joy the lad’s estate. The plot is one of 
greenwood, crossbow, and maiden-rescued- 
at-the-altar, quite in Robin Hood style. 
John Amend-All plays the part of Rob¬ 
in Hood. He and his men have a lik¬ 
ing for young Dick, and an especial aver¬ 
sion for Sir Daniel and his followers. The 
retainers of Sir Daniel muster at the lich¬ 
gate to march under his banner. They 
find a note pinned to the church door: 

I had four blak arrows under my belt. 

Four for the greefs that I have felt. 

Four for the nomber of ill menne 
That have oppressid me now and then. 

One is gone; one is wele sped; 

Old Apulyaird is ded. 

One is for Maister Bennet Hatch, 

That burned Grimstone, walls and thatch. 
One for Sir Oliver Oates, 

That cut Sir Harry Shelton’s throat. 

Sir Daniel, ye shull have the fourt; 

We shall think it fair sport. 

Ye shull each have your own part, 

A blak arrow in each blak heart. 

Get ye to your knees for to pray: 

Ye are ded theeves, by yea and nay! 

Jon Amend-All 

of the Green Wood 
And his jolly fellaweship. 
Item, we have mo arrowes and goode 
hempen cord for others of your following. 

See Stevenson* Robert Louis. 


BLACK BEAUTY—BLACKBIRD 


Black Beauty, a story by Anna Sewall. 
Black Beauty is a horse, and his history 
is told in autobiographical form. The 
book has been read widely, and has been 
influential in securing kind treatment for 
horses. See Angell. 

The circulation of Black Beauty, in all lan¬ 
guages so far as I can estimate (1909), is ap¬ 
proximately three million copies. It would be 
impossible to determine the exact number, as 
this book has been published by many differ¬ 
ent firms in many different places. I sup¬ 
pose Mr. Angell put out by far the larger 
number, probably over two million copies.— 
Guy Richardson, Editor, Our Dumb Animals. 

Blackberry, a fruit-bearing bramble. 
The blackberry and the raspberry are near¬ 
ly akin. The fruit of each is composed 
of a mass of drupelets, each containing a 
seed. The raspberry may be pulled off, 
leaving a dry receptacle or core. The 
blackberry core is juicy and forms part 
of the fruit. Blackberry preserves, jam, 
and jelly, wine and blackberry cordial, an 
old-fashioned family remedy, are not un¬ 
known on the housekeeper’s shelves. Our 
blackberries are native Americans. The 


blackberry is comparatively unknown in 
Europe. It has reached its prominence in 
the United States during the past half cen¬ 
tury. Among hints given by growers are 
a well drained soil, protection from drouth, 
avoidance of over-rich soil which produces 
cane rather than fruit, and cutting out the 
old canes as soon as they have borne fruit. 
If the old canes be burned promptly, most 
of the blackberry’s insect enemies are de¬ 
stroyed. In a cold climate blackberries 
must be covered in the winter season. The 


leading nine states in blackberry growing 
are as follows; the yield is in quarts for 


the year in which the fourteenth United 
States census was taken: 


Texas .... 
Washington 
Missouri ... 
California . 
Michigan . 
New Jersey 
Oregon .... 
Kentucky . 
New York 


6,287,333 

3,691,065 

2,985,006 

2,549,082 

2,452,909 

2,045,521 

2,139,110 

1,778,468 

1,711,546 


See Raspberry; Burbank. 

Blackbird, a well known member of a 
large bird family. It is related to the 
oriole, bobolink, and meadow-lark. The 


red-winged blackbird with scarlet shoul¬ 
ders and his rusty, buffy, modest wife build 
nests in the sedges, reeds, and rushes a 
foot or two above the water throughout 
the swamps of Eastern North America 
from the Gulf to Manitoba. Eggs, three 
to five, pale blue, streaked or spotted with 
dark purple. The spring concert of new¬ 
ly arrived blackbirds rivals that of the 
bullfrog. The Kong Ki reee, conqueree, 
conqueree, of a male balancing dexterous- 


Red-winged blackbird. 

ly midway up an old reed or sitting on 
a willow is a cheerful trill of rich music. 
“The redwing flutes his O Ka lee says 
Emerson. The assaults of the blackbird 
on green corn, and a propensity not un¬ 
like that of the snipe to drill a hole at 
the base of sprouting corn for the sake of 
the seed, have not endeared him to the 
farmer. These birds gather in large flocks 
prior to their migration southward for 
the winter. The yellow-headed blackbird 
nests in extensive bodies of reeds from 
Illinois to Manitoba and westward. The 
rusty blackbird ranges farther north The 
purple grackle, or crow blackbird, breeds 
in the Mississippi Valley and eastward. 
The blackbirds of Europe and Africa do 
not belong to the same family as ours 
They are thrushes. The “wild whistling 
blackbird,” named by Burns in his sorrow, 
belongs to a British family of thrushes. 
See Cow-Bird; Bird. 

















BLACKCOCK—BLACK DOUGLAS 


Blackcock, a northern grouse of the 
Old World. It is closely allied to our par¬ 
tridge and prairie hen. It lives on leaves, 
buds, and berries in the mosses of northern 
Britain, Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia. 
The male weighs about four pounds and 
is of a bluish-black color. The female is 
gray and weighs half as much. Large 
numbers of the males are brought to the 
London market, the female being left by 
common consent to breed unmolested. The 
handsome male, with a scarlet patch over 
his eye, and a call likened to the whetting 
of a scythe, is the bird of which Scott, 
with Ellen’s Isle in mind, says, “At noon 
the blackcock trims his jetty wing.” See 
Grouse. 

Black Death, an infectious, oriental fe¬ 
ver, accompanied by boils and black spots 
indicating decomposition. In England 
the pestilence broke out in the southern 
counties in 1348, or soon after the battle 
of Crecy, and raged for three years. Its 
ravages were not so severe in Ireland, and 
were much lighter in mountainous dis¬ 
tricts. It is thought that Scotland might 
have escaped had not the Scots taken ad¬ 
vantage of the English distress to send a 
marauding army southward. This army 
was not only seized by the plague, but the 
survivors carried it home to the remote 
parts of the land. From England the 
death spread to Norway by ship. All 
countries of Europe were afflicted. It is 
stated on authority that 25,000,000 Euro¬ 
pean people perished. In England the 
mortality was so great that agricultural 
districts suffered for laborers, and wages 
rose. Not only this, but English labor¬ 
ers, at that time little better than serfs, 
were able to make better terms with the 
ruling classes, and to lay the foundation 
for a long series of improvements in the 
social conditions of wage-earners. 

Defoe gives a graphic description of a 
later outbreak in London in 1665, called 
the Great Plague, which carried off 63,- 
596 people. A veritable reign of terror 
ensued. The inhabitants fled in every di¬ 
rection leaving thousands of unburied 
corpses to pollute the fever-stricken air. It 
is no wonder that the English Book of 
Common Prayer contains a petition to be 


preserved from pestilence. The Black 
Death is believed to have been the same 
as the modern Bubonic Plague, which see. 

The most terrible plague which the world 
ever witnessed advanced at this juncture from 
the East, and after devastating Europe from 
the s’ ores of the Mediterranean to the Baltic, 
swooped at the close of 1348 upon Britain. 
The traditions of its destructiveness, and the 
panic-struck words of the statutes which fol¬ 
lowed it, have been more than justified by 
modern research. Of the three or four mil¬ 
lions who then formed the population of Eng¬ 
land, more than one-half were swept away in 
its repeated visitations. Its ravages were fierc¬ 
est in the greater towns, where filthy and un¬ 
drained streets afforded a constant haunt to 
leprosy and fever. In the burial-ground which 
the piety of Sir Walter Maunay purchased for 
the citizens of London, a spot whose site was 
afterwards marked by the Charter House, more 
than fifty thousand corpses are said to have 
been interred. Thousands of people perished 
at Norwich, while in Bristol the living were 
hardly able to bury the dead. But the Black 
Death fell on the villages almost as fiercely as 
on the towns. More than one-half of the priests 
of Yorkshire are known to have perished; in 
the diocese of Norwich two-thirds of the parish¬ 
es changed their incumbents. The whole or¬ 
ganization of labour was thrown out of gear. 
The scarcity of hands made it difficult for the 
minor tenants to perform the services due for 
their lands, and only a temporary abandonment 
of half the rent by the landowners induced the 
farmers to refrain from the abandonment of 
their farms. For a time cultivation became im¬ 
possible. “The sheep and cattle strayed through 
the fields and corn,” says a contemporary, “and 
there were none left who could drive them.” 
Even when the first burst of panic was over, 
the sudden rise of wages consequent on the 
enormous diminution in the supply of free la¬ 
bour, though accompanied by a corresponding 
rise in the price of food, rudely disturbed the 
course of industrial employments; harvests rot¬ 
ted on the ground, and fields were left untilled, 
not merely from scarcity of hands, but from 
the strife which now for the first time revealed 
itself between capital and labour.—J. R. Green, 
History of the English People. 

Black Douglas, The, Sir James Doug¬ 
las, a character in Scott’s Castle Danger¬ 
ous, a story of the series, The Tales of My 
Landlord. Black Douglas was a generic 
name given to the elder branch of the no¬ 
ble Scottish family of Douglas. The 
scene of the story is Scotland, the time 
the fourteenth century, while Edward I 
of England and Bruce of Scotland are at 
war. The plot is concerned largely with 
the efforts of the Black Douglas to win 


BLACKFEET—BLACKFRIARS THEATER 


back his castle from the English. See 
Douglas. 

Blackfeet, a tribe of Indians. This 
tribe hunted the buffalo in the vast region 
extending from the valley of the Yellow¬ 
stone to Hudson Bay. The Blackfoot was 
the most northwesterly representative of 
the great Algonquin family. Their war¬ 
riors were related, therefore, in a remote 
way to Pocahontas, King Philip, Tecum- 
seh, and Black Hawk. About 3,000 of 
these Indians linger on a reservation in 
Montana. As many more make their home 
in Canada. The name is said, rather fan¬ 
cifully it would seem, to have originated 
in the accidental circumstance that the first 
members of the tribe seen by white men 
had blackened their leggings by traveling 
across a burnt prairie. 

The tribe that wandered the furthest from 
the primitive home of the stock (the Algon¬ 
quin) were the Blackfeet, or Sisika, which word 
has this significat : on. It is derived from their 
earlier habitat in the valley of the Red River 
of the North where the soil was dark and 
blackened their moccasins. . . . They have an 
interesting mythology and an unusual knowl¬ 
edge of the constellations.—D. G. Brinton, The 
American Race. 

Black Forest, a mountainous forest re¬ 
gion about the head waters of the Rhine 
and the Danube. The name is a transla¬ 
tion of the German Schwarz-wald. The 
region is from fifteen to thirty miles in 
width. It lies in Baden and Wiirtem- 
berg. The forest growth is chiefly of pine. 
Agriculture is confined to the plains. Cat¬ 
tle are raised on the hillsides. A large 
part of the region is given up to the rais¬ 
ing of timber for which it is famous. Large 
rafts of logs are taken down the Rhine 
and marketed in Holland. The region is 
noted for a number of local industries, 
such as the making of tar, charcoal, and 
potash, but especially for the manufacture 
of watches, cuckoo clocks, and toys. The 
latter are made more cheaply here than 
elsewhere, and are exported to all parts of 
the world. A part of the cheap wooden 
toys sold in American shops are from the 
Black Forest. Under the caption “A 
Black Forest Pathway” an entertaining 
article on the Black Forest is to be had 
in Scribner's Magazine for August, 1909. 


Blackfriars, in the history of London, 
a name given to the mendicant monks of 
the Dominican order. These monks were so 
called from the color of their garb. They 
settled in Holborn, London, about 1221. 
In 1285 an old tower was given them for 
a monastery. When the older city walls 
were torn down, a large space thus cleared 
was given to the Black Friars. The mon¬ 
astery grew to be an extensive affair and 
played no small part in London affairs. 
It had the privilege of asylum; culprits 
who sought shelter within its precincts 
were secure from pursuit, unless handed 
over to the officers by authority of the 
monks. Henry VIII’s suit for divorce 
against Catharine of Aragon was heard 
by Cardinal Wolsey and his colleague at 
Blackfriars. The old monastery disap¬ 
peared long ago, but the name has been re¬ 
tained by the locality in which it former¬ 
ly stood and by Blackfriars Bridge. 

Blackfriars Bridge, a bridge across 
the Thames, London. The structure is 
built of iron. The bridge consists of five 
iron arches resting on granite piers. The 
central arch has a span of 185 feet. The 
bridge is 1,272 feet long and 80 feet 
broad. It was completed in 1869 at a cost 
of $1,600,000. Blackfriars commands a 
magnificent view of the shipping in the 
Thames. The dome of St. Paul’s is seen 
to best advantage here. The present 
bridge occupies the site of an older bridge, 
known by the same name. The first 
Blackfriars Bridge was a stone structure. 
It was begun in 1760, a _d was finished in 
1769. It cost $1,500 o00. It was r C5 
feet long, 42 feet wKc, and 62 feet above 
the water with a C' itral span of 100 feet. 
About 1864 the ' .one pillars suddenly be¬ 
gan to give wa , rendering the bridge un¬ 
safe, and it was torn down. The dimin¬ 
ished length of the new bridge may be 
accounted for in part by the building of 
Victoria Embankment. The northern end 
of the new bridge terminates at a massive 
stone wall. The space between this wall 
and the old river bank has been filled in 
with earth, and converted into solid land. 

Blackfriars Theater, a famous London 
theater. The site is now occupied in part 
by the London Times office. Originally 


BLACK FRIDAY—BLACKMAIL 


the theater was built on territory belong¬ 
ing to Blackfriars monastery. The reason 
for this is a curious one. The monastery 
possessed the right of asylum. Players were 
forbidden to act in London, so they built 
their theater here on protected territory, 
where the sheriff of London had no au¬ 
thority. Blackfriars was never a low thea¬ 
ter. The players were men of standing. 
“The actors of Blackfriars were of grave 
and sober behavior and men of high stand¬ 
ing.” Shakespeare and his friends acted 
here. Shakespeare wrote all his plays for 
either the Globe Theater or for Black¬ 
friars. The theater is described as hav¬ 
ing boxes with three tiers of galleries 
above them. The orchestra sat at the side 
of the stage in the balcony. The stage 
was strewn with rushes, and, if a tragedy 
was to be represented, it was draped with 
black. Blackfriars was burned down 
about 1655. 

Black Friday, the name given to the 
day of the gold panic September 24, 1869, 
on which immense fortunes changed hands. 
The true cause of the panic has never been 
explained satisfactorily but it is considered 
a result of an attempt made by Jay Gould 
and James Fisk to “corner” the gold 
market. See Gould, Jay. 

Black Hawk (1767-1838), a celebra¬ 
ted chief of the Sac Indians. His tribe 
lived at Kaskaskia, Illinois. He was made 
chief of the Sacs in 1788. He objected 
always to the cession of their lands, claim¬ 
ing that the chiefs were placed under the 
influence of whiskey before they signed 
the treaty. He was ordered to remove 
with his people to Iowa, but he lingered 
and inaugurated the so-called Black Hawk 
War in 1831. He stirred up the Indians 
of Iowa and Wisconsin, with a view to 
regain their old hunting grounds in Illi¬ 
nois. In the war that followed, Abraham 
Lincoln was among the volunteers. In 
August, 1832, Black Hawk and his braves 
were defeated at the battle of Bad Axe 
River, and Black Hawk was taken prison¬ 
er. He was taken to Washington, and con¬ 
ducted through the chief cities of the East 
to impress him with a sense of the folly 
of opposing the whites. He was subse¬ 


quently released, and lived with his tribe 
near Fort Dodge, Iowa. 

Black Hills, a rough region in south¬ 
western South Dakota and Wyoming. In 
pioneer days it was a stronghold of the 
Sioux Indians. The region was opened 
to settlement in 1876. The Black Hills 
are noted for mining. Gold, silver, copper, 
lead, iron, and other ores are produced. 
The Homestake Mine is the most produc¬ 
tive gold mine in North America. There 
are caves of unknown extent. Grazing is 
an important industry. See South Da¬ 
kota. 

Black Hole of Calcutta, a dungeon in 
Fort Williams, Calcutta. During an in¬ 
surrection of the natives, the English gar¬ 
rison of this fort, then a trading station, 
were taken captive by the nabob, Dowlah. 
On the evening of June 20, 1756, 146 pris¬ 
oners w’ere crowded for safe keeping into 
the little dungeon of the place only twenty 
feet square. The room was so crowded that 
the door could only be closed with difficul¬ 
ty. The room had but two small windows. 
In that warm climate, the men were in a 
few moments in a violent perspiration, and 
began to call loudly for air. The native 
keepers, however, dared not awaken the 
nabob, who had gone to sleep. The pris¬ 
oners raved and cursed, and fought for a 
position near the little barred windows. 
They offered the guards large sums of 
money to exert themselves to secure larger 
quarters, but the poor Hindu guards were 
powerless. They tried to pass in water 
through the windows, but the amount was 
so small and the men were so frantic that 
it was spilled without doing much good. 

In the morning but twenty-three men 
were taken out of the Black Hole alive. 

1 he nabob appeared utterly unconcerned. 

It is a little satisfaction to know that he 
was murdered a few months later by a po¬ 
litical rival. For an account of the Black 
Hole atrocity by a master of description, 
the reader is referred to Macaulay’s Essay 
oil Lord Clive. See India; Clive; Luck¬ 
now. 

Blackmail, a term applied in the days 
of English and Scotch border warfare to 
payment made in cattle, corn, or the like, 
to some chief of robbers for protection 


BLACKMORE—BLACKSNAKE 


from further loss. Scott’s Waverley gives 
a glimpse of the efficient protection afford¬ 
ed by a Fergus Mclvor, and the prompt 
loss of flocks following neglect and re¬ 
fusal to pay blackmail. Farmers in the 
border country had no choice save that 
between submission and ruin. In modern 
usage the term is applied usually to a sum 
of money extracted from a person through 
threats of exposure of wrongdoing. “Give 
me of your flocks or you shall lose” was 
the message of the Scottish border chief¬ 
tain. “Give of your money or I’ll tell” 
is the formula of the modern blackmail¬ 
er. The laws of most states make the 
levying of blackmail a crime punishable 
by imprisonment for a term, usually not to 
exceed five years. 

Blackmore, Richard Doddridge 

(1825-1900), an English novelist. He 
was a native of Berkshire and was educat¬ 
ed for the law, but took to writing tales 
of English life. His one success is Lorna 
Doom, published in 1869. It is a story 
of an English farmstead and a band of 
robber Doones. Lorna is the heroine. It 
ranks certainly among the best of English 
novels. Of a score of volumes written by 
the same author Clara Vaughan and Alice 
Lorraine may be mentioned, but the best 
of these is not to be compared with Lorna 
Doone. 

Black Prince, Edward (1330-1376), 
Prince of Wales, the son and heir of Ed¬ 
ward III of England. He was a noted 
knight. Flis name was derived from the 
color of his armor. At the age of six¬ 
teen, he was in the thick of the battle of 
Crecy. Ten years later he defeated the 
French at the battle of Poitiers. He was 
one of England’s greatest fighting men. 
He slew the king of Bohemia in battle and 
took prisoner the king of France and the 
king of Scotland. He died before his 
father, but his son became King Richard 
II. The motto of the Prince of Wales, 
Ich dien (I serve), was won at Crecy. 
It has been retained by his successors ever 
since. 

Black Sea, a large inland sea situated 
between Asia Minor and Russia. By the 
ancients it was called the Euxine. It is 
entered from the Mediterranean by way 


of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, 
and the Bosporus. Its drainage basin is 
large. It receives the waters of about one- 
fourth of Europe and not less than 100,- 
000 square miles in Asia. Considerable 
portions of the Russian shore are low and 
sandy, especially about the mouths of the 
European rivers, but the Asiatic coast, as 
well as the Crimea, is high and rocky. The 
greatest length is 750 miles. The sea is 
subject to violent storms. The northern 
shore is icebound in January and Febru¬ 
ary. The Black Sea is 7,000 feet deep, and 
is unfavorable for fish, though sturgeon 
and other fish are taken near the mouths 
of the rivers. The Mediterranean tunny 
comes in to spawn. Dolphins and por¬ 
poises are numerous in the harbors. The 
waters of the Black Sea are open to the 
merchant ships of all nations, but warships 
are not allowed to pass the Bosporus. 
This rule was made by the great powers 
in order that the warships of Russia may 
not pass out and attack Constantinople. 
Odessa, famous for wheat, is the leading 
seaport. Caviare, fish glue, and oil are 
exported. Batoum is noted for exports of 
Baku petroleum. The American Standard 
Oil Company is interested. See Turkey; 
Constantinople; Crimea. 

Blacksnake, or Blue Racer, a harm¬ 
less serpent native to the Eastern United 
States from Florida to Canada. The 
adults are usually lustrous black above and 
slate color beneath; they are very slender 
in form and rarely attain a length of more 
than six feet. The blacksnake is the 
swiftest and most indefatigable hunter 
among all American snakes. It is an expert 
climber, going into the very tops of trees 
in search of birds’ nests, and often leaping 
more than its own length to get from one 
tree to another. It is an expert swimmer, 
and hunts the marshes for frogs and toads, 
small snakes of other species, small mam¬ 
mals, and birds and their eggs. The black¬ 
snake is useful to man as a destroyer of 
many insects, and moles and mice, and is 
at the same time harmless, its most severe 
bite leaving only a scratch. The stojries 
of blacksnakes that track and kill rattle¬ 
snakes are—stories. This reptile is coura¬ 
geous, but will always flee when closely 


BLACKSTONE—BLAINE 


approached by man. The skunk and the 
badger are perhaps its worst enemies. It 
hides in hollow stumps and underground. 

Blackstone, Sir William (1723- 
1780), an English jurist. He was born 
in London and was educated at a London 
school called Charterhouse, at Oxford Uni¬ 
versity, and later for the law. In 1758 
he began a series of lectures at Oxford 
on English law. He divided his com¬ 
ments into four books on the rights of per¬ 
sons, the rights of things, public wrongs, 
and private wrongs. Published in book 
form these lectures are known as Black- 
stone’s Commentaries and are frequently, 
if not universally, the first law book placed 
in the hands of a law student. Black¬ 
stone is criticized for being too much of 
an essayist and not enough of a lawyer; 
for not distinguishing clearly between 
legal and popular uses of a word; for fall¬ 
ing into contradiction; and for setting up 
a literary defense of English law as a per¬ 
fect and perfected body of law, instead of 
a crude, growing code full of injustice as 
well as of admirable provisions. Lawyers 
regard Blackstone rather as an essayist,— 
a Lord Macaulay turned loose in a law 
school. 

Bladder-Nut, a shrub ten feet high, 
with greenish striped branches. It is re¬ 
lated to the box-elder and to the maples. 
So called from a three-celled, inflated pod, 
looking something like the husk of a 
ground cherry. There are from one to 
four seeds in each cell. They rattle in 
a pod which hangs on all winter. 

Bladderwort, a curious aquatic herb 
floating or rooting in the mud. The 
thread-like leaves are furnished with air 
bladders which float the plant, especially 
at time of flowering. An interesting fea¬ 
ture is a light, thin, trapdoor opening in¬ 
ward on the underside of the bladders. 
The probability is that this door is de¬ 
signed to admit water when the plant is 
ready to sink, but insects push up through 
the trap and are unable to escape. The 
question is whether the plant makes use 
of them for food. The yellow flower of 
the common bladderwort (utricularia 
vulgaris) has a chin-like spur and an ir¬ 
regular sort of hood. It grins at one 


from ponds and ditches like a tiny old 
water witch. 

Blaine, James Gillespie (1830-1893), 
an American statesman. He was born in 
Pennsylvania near Pittsburg. His father 
was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian; his moth¬ 
er a Catholic. As a lad he had strong 
likings for debate, literature, and history. 
He was educated at Washington College. 
He studied law, and later opened an of¬ 
fice in Augusta, Maine. His facility in 
public speaking drew him into journalism 
and politics at once. He was a member 
of the convention of 1856 that nominated 
Fremont for the presidency. He served 
in the state legislature and represented 
Maine in Congress for twenty years. He 
was speaker of the Llouse from 1869- 
1874, and won a reputation for ability and 
dispatch of business, second only to that 
of Thomas B. Reed in later times. In 
1876 Blaine was a candidate for the presi¬ 
dential nomination, but was defeated by 
Hayes. He opposed the appointment of 
the electoral commission on the ground 
that it extended the powers of Congress. 
In 1880 he was again a candidate, but 
was defeated by the forces of Roscoe 
Conkling, his political enemy. The prize 
went to Garfield who made Blaine sec¬ 
retary of state. Upon the assassination 
of President Garfield, Vice-President Ar¬ 
thur, a political ally of Conkling, became 
president and Blaine resigned. In 1884 
he was again a candidate for the Republi¬ 
can nomination. This time he won in the 
convention. Despite the facts of Blaine’s 
parentage and that he himself was decid¬ 
edly noncommittal in denominational mat¬ 
ters, a blundering clergyman in New York 
state made the assertion in a congratulatory 
address that a vote against Blaine was a 
vote for “Rum, Romanism, and Rebel¬ 
lion.” This cry was taken up by politic¬ 
al opponents, and it is claimed carried 
the state by a small margin for Cleveland, 
insuring the latter’s election to the presi¬ 
dency. Andrew D. White maintains that 
the state was lost to Blaine anyhow, and 
that the oft told tale of how Blaine lost 
New York and the presidency is without 
sound foundation. During Blaine’s long 
public career, he was a staunch supporter 


BLAIR—BLAKE 


of the Union cause. He favored bimet- 
alism, that is to say, the circulation of gold 
and silver on an equal basis. He advo¬ 
cated paying bounties to the builders of 
American ships and labored for reciproci- 
ty, or an exchange of goods between 
neighboring countries without the pay¬ 
ment of prohibitive duties. During his 
service as speaker of the House he was 
accused of having a financial interest in 
government contracts. The charge was 
not proved, but it hurt his standing in 
political life. In point of eminence, ability, 
and political disappointment he may be 
mentioned in connection with Webster, 
Clay, Seward, and Douglas. Blaine’s later 
years were spent in preparing his work, 
Twenty Years in Congress. 

Blair, Francis Preston (1791 - 1876), 
an American journalist and politician, born 
in Abingdon, Va. After graduating from 
Transylvania University in 1811 he en¬ 
tered politics. He supported Henry Clay 
for the Presidency in 1824, but later be¬ 
came a warm adherent of Andrew Jackson. 
Blair was editor of the Washington Globe 
from 1830 to 1845. He was a strong 
opponent of slavery and a whole-souled 
supporter of Lincoln, and was one of the 
founders of the Republican party, but later 
he returned to the Democratic fold. In 
1864 he unofficially proposed peace terms 
to Jefferson Davis, which resulted in the 
famous peace conference between Presi¬ 
dent Lincoln and the Confederate repre¬ 
sentatives, held at Hampton Roads, Febru¬ 
ary 3, 1865. 

Blair, Francis Preston, Jr., (1821 - 
1875), an American lawyer, soldier and 
politician, son of Francis P. Blair, Sr., was 
born in Lexington, Ky. He was admitted 
to the bar in 1843 and practiced law in 
St. Louis. He served as a private in the 
Mexican War. Blair was for a time editor 
of the Missouri Democrat. At the out¬ 
break of the Civil War he was the leader 
of the Union party in Missouri, and to 
him was in a great measure due Missouri’s 
remaining in the Union. He was unsuc¬ 
cessful candidate for Vice President in 
1868, and from 1871 to 1873 was a mem¬ 
ber of the United States Senate. 

Blair, James (1656-1743), a colonial 


clergyman and educator, the founder and 
first president of the College of William 
and Mary in Virginia. He was born in 
Scotland and studied at the University of 
Edinburgh. In 1682 he went to Virginia 
as a missionary of the Church of England. 
He preached, successively, at Henrico City, 
Jamestown, and Williamsburg, and in 1689 
became Commissary of Virginia. In 1690 
he began the work of founding a college 
in Virginia, which was to provide for the 
education of young men as ministers. He 
went to England in 1691, and there in 
1693 secured a charter for the College of 
William and Mary. The buildings for the 
college were erected and he became its 
president, which position he held until his 
death in 1743. 

Blair, Montgomery (1813-1883), an 
American lawyer and statesman, son of 
Francis Preston Blair, Sr. He was born 
in Franklin Co., Kentucky, and graduated 
from West Point in 1865, after which he 
served for some months in the first Seminole 
War. He resigned from the army-, studied 
law, and was admitted to the bar, practicing 
in St. Louis. He held many important 
public positions, and was Postmaster-Gen¬ 
eral in President Lincoln’s cabinet from 
1861 to 1864. He returned later to the 
Democratic party, and was a warm sup¬ 
porter of Tilden in the Tilden-Hayes con¬ 
troversy. He published his Speech on the 
Causes of Rebellion in 1864. 

Blake, Edward (1833-1912), a Cana¬ 
dian statesman. He was born at Adelaide, 
Ontario, and was educated at Upper Can¬ 
ada College and Toronto University. Ad¬ 
mitted to the bar in 1856, he soon took 
an active interest in political affairs. In 
1867 Mr. Blake was elected to the Domin¬ 
ion Parliament, and at the same time sat 
in the Ontario Legislature. In 1869, he 
became the leader of the Liberal Opposi¬ 
tion in the Legislature, and in 1871 was 
Prime Minister for several months. De¬ 
clining the leadership of the Liberals in 
Parliament, he accepted a ministership 
without portfolio in 1873. In that year 
Mr. Blake took a prominent part in oppos¬ 
ing the political bargain known as the 
Pacific Railway Scandal. Accepting the 
office of Minister of Justice in 1875, he 


BLAKE 


aided in planning the organization of the 
Dominion Supreme Court. He was leader 
of the Liberal opposition in the Dominion 
House of Commons from 1880 to 1887, and 
in 1891 retired from Canadian political 
life. At the invitation of the Irish Na¬ 
tionalists, Mr. Blake entered Imperial poli¬ 
tics in 1892. He was elected to the British 
House of Commons and rendered excellent 
service to the Nationalists. In 1896, he 
was a member of the committee appointed 
to investigate South African affairs. An 
ardent advocate of Imperial federation 
early in his career, Mr. Blake later became 
more conservative in his views. He took 
an active interest in educational matters 
and founded several scholarships at To¬ 
ronto University, of which he was chan¬ 
cellor for a time. 

Blake, Robert (1598-1657), a famous 
English seaman. He was a native of Som¬ 
ersetshire. His father was a merchant. 
Robert was well educated. He entered 
Parliament as a Presbyterian, and took an 
active part in the conflict with the Royal¬ 
ists. His life began and ended within a 
few months of that of Cromwell, and their 
lives ran parallel. When Parliament and 
the king came to blows, Blake proved 
his mettle at the head of a troop of his 
neighbors, and shortly after the execution 
of Charles I he was appointed General 
of the Sea. He drove Prince Rupert and 
the royalist fleet into port in Portugal, cap¬ 
tured a fleet of seventeen richly laden 
Portuguese ships returning from Brazil, 
destroyed the fleet of Rupert, and fought 
the Dutch under Van Tromp, De Witt, 
and De Ruyter. Though Van Tromp 
lashed a broom to his masthead to indi¬ 
cate his intention of sweeping the English 
from the sea, the British schoolboy reads 
in history a glorious story of a Dutch 
fleet of a hundred ships annihilated, and 
a Spanish fleet cut out under the guns 
of a castle on Teneriffe. Blake reduced 
the Knights of Malta and the piratical 
states of North Africa, and forced them 
to respect the flag of the English mer¬ 
chantman. He died at sea in sight of 
Plymouth, and was buried with honors in 
Westminster Abbey. His bones were or¬ 
dered removed by Charles II. In a time 


of bitter hatreds Blake was an open fight¬ 
er. He has never been accused of perse¬ 
cution, dishonesty, or unmanly actions in 
private life. 

Blake, William (1757-1827), an Eng¬ 
lish poet, artist, and engraver. This poet- 
artist, whose illuminated poems are a 
unique work, is one of the most interesting 
and perhaps the least understood of all 
who figure in the pages of literature. 
Called a connoisseur in his childhood, 
called a child in his old age, he was a 
mystic who saw visions of angels where 
others saw flowers and trees; who claimed 
to talk with men of a bygone age—with 
Moses, Virgil, and Homer—and who was 
accounted insane because he wrote poetry 
like an artist, letting symbols take the 
place of ideas. He died in poverty and 
obscurity, and now his drawings and en¬ 
gravings sell for thousands of dollars. 

Blake was born in London. His father 
kept a hosier’s shop. While he gave his boy 
but a scanty education, he seems to have 
recognized the child’s artistic ability at 
an early date and to have done his best to 
encourage and develop it. At the age of 
ten young William was sent to a drawing 
school, where he received instruction for 
four years. Already he was haunting 
art sale rooms, where he became known 
as the “little connoisseur.” After four 
years at drawing school, Blake was ap¬ 
prenticed to James Basine, a prominent 
engraver. Here he remained for seven 
years, becoming proficient in the art of 
engraving. On completing his apprentice¬ 
ship Blake began to engrave for the book¬ 
sellers, at the same time continuing his art 
studies at the Royal Academy. Blake 
married in 1782. About this time he be¬ 
gan to see something of literary society. 
In certain circles it became a common 
thing for him to recite or sing poems of 
his own composition. In 1783, at the sug¬ 
gestion of friends, he published Poetical 
Sketches, a volume of boyish, but rather 
promising poems. In 1789 Songs of Inno¬ 
cence appeared, followed in a few years 
by a companion volume, Songs of Experi¬ 
ence. These books were produced by an 
original method which Blake believed to 
have been revealed to him in a dream by 


BLANC 


his dead brother. He engraved the poem, 
together with a decorative design, upon 
copper. The pages printed from these 
copper plates were afterward colored by 
hand, his wife aiding him in the work. 
Many of the songs in these volumes rank 
among the best poems of the romantic 
school of which Swinburne calls Blake the 
founder. Between these two volumes of 
verse intervened several Prophetic Books, 
as Blake called them. These “prophecies” 
are obscure, and often incoherent. It is 
on account of the unintelligibility of these 
poems that Blake came to be regarded as 
insane. He seems to have been under in¬ 
fluences for which no outward facts can 
account. But whether he was a prey to 
a disordered fancy, or whether, as his 
ideas became more profound and complex, 
he lacked ability to express them in logic¬ 
al language, has never been clearly set¬ 
tled. However this may be, the artist's 
power increased as the poet’s ability to 
write acceptably decreased. His Inven¬ 
tions to the Book of Job, consisting of 
twenty-two engravings and twenty-one 
original designs in color, with the original 
colored drawings by the artist, sold in Lon¬ 
don in 1903 for $28,000. Illustrations 
for Thornton’s Virgil, for Young’s Night 
Thoughts, for the Divina Com?nedia, and 
for L } Allegro and II Penseroso are among 
his other works. For twenty-eight years 
Blake sent pictures to the annual exhibi¬ 
tion of the Royal Academy. His paint¬ 
ings are usually weird in subject. The 
procession of the Canterbury pilgrims is 
one of the most widely known. 

I assert for myself that I do not behold 
the outward creation, and that to me it is 
hindrance and not action. “What!” it will 
be questioned, “when the sun rises, do you not 
see a disk of fire, somewhat like a guinea?” 
“O no, no! I see an innumerable company of 
the heavenly host, crying ‘holy, holy, holy, is 
the Lord God Almighty!’ ” I question not the 
corporeal eye, any more than I would question 
a window concerning a sight. I look through, 
and not with it! 

Tiger, tiger, burning bright 

In the forests of the night, 

What immortal hand or eye 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

A Robin Redbreast in a cage 

Puts all heaven in a rage. 


Tools were made, and born were hands 

Every farmer understands. 

A truth that’s told with bad intent 

Beats all the lies you can invent. 

SAID OF BLAKE. 

Blake, that sublime visionary.—Edmund 

Clarence Stedman. 

One of the most extraordinary persons of 
the age.—Charles Lamb. 

It is by the sublimity of his genius, and not 
by any mental defect, that Blake is most clear¬ 
ly distinguished from his fellows.—J. W. 
Comyns Carr. 

Blanc, Louis (1811-1882), a French 
socialist. He was born at Madrid. He 
studied at the University of Paris, and took 
up the work of an attorney’s clerk; but 
wearying of that life, taught for a time 
and then turned his attention to journal¬ 
ism. He founded the Revue du Progres 
in 1839 and devoted his energies to the 
interests of the workingman. His great 
work, Organizatio?i of Labor, appeared se¬ 
rially in the Revue, and was published in 
book form in 1840. He attacked the gov¬ 
ernment of Louis Philippe bitterly. He was 
a member of the provisional government 
of 1848. He was accused of conspiracy 
and fled to England, where he wrote a 
History of the French Revolution in 
twelve volumes, Letters on England, Ques¬ 
tions of Today and Tomorrow. At the 
downfall of Louis Napoleon in 1870 
Blanc returned to Paris. His socialistic 
admirers elected him to the National As¬ 
sembly. Louis Blanc had no little influ¬ 
ence on the thought of his day. He is 
quoted frequently. His central doctrine 
may be stated briefly. Society should 
cease to be a battlefield, man competing 
with man. Each should contribute accord¬ 
ing to his ability and each should be com¬ 
pensated according to his needs. 

Blanc, Mont, the highest and in many 
respects the most remarkable mountain in 
Europe. Its chief summit is 15,781 feet 
above the sea. Geographically Mont 
Blanc is a part of Switzerland, but on the 
political map, the greater part of the 
mountain, including its chief summit, is 
in France. It was ascended in 1786 by 
Jacques Balmat, whose monument stands 
in the village of Chamounix. A scientific 
exploration under the celebrated Saussure 


BLANKET—BLARNEY 


ascended in 1787 and took many observa¬ 
tions. At the present time the business 
of making ascents is so thoroughly sys¬ 
tematized by the guides of Chamounix 
that the trip may be made without serious 
danger. A rude inn, or sort of camping 
place and depot of provisions, has been 
established near the summit. The first 
day is spent in reaching this chalet; the 
second in completing the ascent and view¬ 
ing the surrounding country if the air be 
clear. The party returns to camp at night 
and to Chamounix on the third day. The 
entire cost of the trip, including the 
charges for guides and entertainment at 
the inn, is about $75. In trips of this sort, 
one guide goes ahead, another brings up 
the rear. They carry the ends of a long 
rope, to which the tourists are required to 
fasten themselves as a precaution lest they 
slip from the footpath into the snowy 
chasms along which it is necessary for the 
party to thread its way. A rack and pin¬ 
ion railroad was begun in 1906. See 
Alps; Switzerland; Chamouni. 

Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains; 

They crowned him long ago 

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds. 

With a diadem of snow. 

—Byron, Manfred. 

Blanket, a heavy, oblong piece of 
cotton or woolen cloth, loosely woven 
and finished with a nap. Bed 

blankets, for four hundred fifty years 
preceding the last half of the nineteenth 
century, were made of wool, either in 
white or natural gray. Since that time 
the use of cotton blankets and blankets of 
mixed cotton and wool has increased con¬ 
stantly. The manufacture of bed blan¬ 
kets involves but four processes, weaving, 
fulling, napping, and binding. 

Bland, Richard Parks (1835 - 1899), 
an American legislator, was born near 
Hartford, Ky. He emigrated to Missouri, 
thence to California, and from there to 
Utah Territory. He was admitted to the 
bar in Utah Territory, but returned to Mis¬ 
souri to practice. In 1872, Mr. Bland was 
elected to the National House of Represen¬ 
tatives, where, with the exception of the 
period between 1895 and 1897, he served 
until his death. Mr. Bland became promi¬ 
nent through his connection with the 


Bland-Allison bill, which provided for the 
coinage of a specified amount of silver 
bullion each month. This bill was passed 
over the veto of President Hayes, and con¬ 
tinued in force until repealed by the pass¬ 
age of the Sherman Law in 1890. 

Blank Verse, unrhymed verse. In 
English poetry this form of verse was used 
first by Henry Howard, Early of Surrey, a 
writer of the first half of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury. At that time everything classical was 
admired and imitated, and as the classic 
poets of Greece and Rome had written 
in unrhymed lines, it was natural that 
w’riters in modern languages should do 
the same. Howard translated two books 
of Virgil’s Aeneid into English blank verse. 
Since that time it has been used by many 
poets and adapted to all classes of poetry 
except the lyric and the simpler forms 
of the epic, such as the ballad. The most 
common form of blank verse is the iambic 
pentameter, that is, each verse consists of 
five feet, each foot of an accented syllable 
followed by an unaccented syllable. In 
this metre are written all our great epics 
and dramas. It is called often “dramatic 
verse,” “heroic pentameter,” “Shakespear¬ 
ean verse” and even “blank verse” simply is 
used to designate this form. The reason 
for blank verse in epic and dramatic poetry 
is clear. Unhampered by necessity of 
rhyming, the poet has more of freedom 
and may represent his characters as speak¬ 
ing in language more nearly like that of 
everyday life, while on the other hand the 
metrical form is more beautiful and pleas¬ 
ing than would be plain prose. The origin 
of the term “blank verse” is attributed to 
Shakespeare in Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2, 
where Hamlet says, “And the lady shall 
say her mind freely, or the blank verse 
shall halt-for’t.” Longfellow’s Hiawatha 
and the same poet’s Evangeline give ex¬ 
amples of blank verse in metres differing 
from the iambic pentameter, and are inter¬ 
esting by way of comparison. See Poetry ; 
Howard, Henry. 

Blarney, a village four miles northwest 
of Cork, Ireland. The name is applied 
also to a stream, and to a small castle in 
the vicinity. The inhabitants of this par¬ 
ish are said to be particularly versatile 


BLASHFIELD—BLAVATSKY 


in the art of flattery and persuasive speech, 
which is accordingly called blarney from 
the name of the locality. A stone in the 
northeast angle of the castle, several feet 
from the top, bears a Latin inscription 
giving the date of erection. It is called 
the Blarney Stone. Whoever kisses the 
Blarney Stone is said to acquire the flu¬ 
ency of tongue peculiar to the district. The 
term has passed into literature. See Ire¬ 
land. 

Blashfield, Edwin Howland (1848-), 
ar American artist. He was born in New 
York City, but was sent to Paris to study 
art. He worked there ten years. His 
specialty is decorative painting on a large 
scale Specially noteworthy paintings are 
The Angel with the Flaming Sword, A 
Poet, The Fencing Lesson, Christinas Bells. 
The decorations of a dome in the Manu¬ 
facturers Building at the Columbian Expo¬ 
sition, and of the dome of the Congressional 
Library at Washington, decorative work 
in the Appellate Court of New York, ceil¬ 
ings and canvases in many of New York’s 
finest homes, may be mentioned among his 
efforts. 

Blast Furnace. See Iron. 

Blasting, the process of removing ob¬ 
structions by the use of explosives. Quar- 
rymen save themselves labor by drilling 
holes and filling them partially with 
charges of powder. One end of a piece 
of fuse is placed in the powder and the 
hole is filled up to the surface with loose 
sand or with scraps of rock tamped down 
solid. The free end of the fuse is then 
fired and the quarryman retires to a safe 
position, which he is able to do before the 
fire reaches the powder. The sudden ex¬ 
plosion throws off a mass of rock, doing 
work that would otherwise cost days of la¬ 
bor. In lieu of a fuse electric circuits may 
be employed. The ends of the wires are 
separated slightly; in leaping the gap the 
spark ignites the powder. A number of 
charges may be ignited, at the same instant 
in this way, cracking off long strips of rock 
as neatly as though done with a saw. Ni- 
tro-glycerin and gun cotton are too dan¬ 
gerous, but dynamite or silicious earth, 
saturated with nitro-glycerin, may be used 
for the purpose. In 1843 three dynamite 


charges of 6,000 pounds each were fired 
simultaneously to blow up a portion of 
the Dover cliff required in the construc¬ 
tion of a breakwater. Miners employ 
dynamite in loosening ore and coal, and in 
digging tunnels. Farmers put a cartridge 
of dynamite under a stump to throw it 
out of the ground. A dangerous reef 
known as Hell Gate, in the East River 
between New York City and Long Island, 
was removed by charging twenty tunnels 
with over twenty-five tons of dynamite and 
powder. Several million tons of rock that 
had long been a menace to shipping were 
thrown out in a single explosion. During 
the siege of Port Arthur by the Japanese 
immense blasts of dynamite were used that 
literally tore the faces off the mountains, 
and rendered expensive fortifications 
worthless. See Dynamite. 

Blavatsky, bla-vat'skl, Helena Petrov¬ 
na Hahn (1831-1891), a Russian theoso- 
phist. She was born at Yekaterinoslav. 
Early in life she married a Russian coun¬ 
cillor of state, but was soon separated 
from him. Madame Blavatsky was fond of 
travel, and while in Tibet became interest¬ 
ed in the religions and mysteries of the 
east. She studied Buddhism, Brahman¬ 
ism, the Cabala, Oriental Spiritualism, the 
worship of Isis and probably the methods 
of the dervishes, or East Indian jugglers. 
In 1873 she came to New York and be¬ 
gan to spread abroad the ideas with which 
she had become imbued, claiming to have 
received knowledge of God and of spirit¬ 
ual matters by some specially illuminating 
process while in the East. In 1875 she 
organized in New York the “Theosophical 
Society.” Her doctrines found many fol¬ 
lowers, and seem to be still gaining ground. 
Madame Blavatsky was the author of 
many books. Isis Unveiled is her most im¬ 
portant work and is the text-book of her 
followers. Other writings are The Key 
of Theosophy, The Secret Doctrine, The 
Voice of Silence. 

Branch societies were founded in other 
countries. The Theosophist, a periodical 
first issued in 1879, became the official 
organ of the society. It was published at 
Bombay. Madame Blavatsky won many 
followers through her lectures and her 


BLEACHING—BLEAK HOUSE 




writings, and also through her so-called 
miracles. Investigations by the Society of 
Psychical Research in 1884, and by V. S. 
Solovyoff, who published in 1895 A Mod¬ 
ern Priestess of Isis, demonstrated the 
fraudulent nature of these miracles. 

Bleaching, the process of whitening, or 
removing the natural greyish or yellowish 
color from new linen, silk, cotton cloth, 
chip hats, nuts, etc. It is the opposite of 
dyeing. The Egyptians appear to have 
employed a method of bleaching by means 
of weak lye. The method of bleaching 
corresponding in age to the historic hand 
loom is the simple one of dipping a web 
of cloth in water, or else sprinkling it 
with water and spreading it out on a grass 
plot to dry. Dew was supposed to be 
particularly serviceable. This process of 
sprinkling and drying was kept up some¬ 
times for weeks to obtain the desired de¬ 
gree of whiteness. 

Linen holds its vegetable yellow more 
tenaciously than cotton, but it is exquisite¬ 
ly white at the last. Under the impression 
that the waters or else the climate of Haar¬ 
lem were especially suited, British linen, 
particularly Scotch linen, was long sent 
to Holland for bleaching. It was re¬ 
tained for a year or so and was known in 
the trade as Hollands. 

The old picturesque methods of the 
hand loom and grassy bleaching plot have 
given way in most places to bleaching in 
large factories by a chemical agent. Grass 
bleaching, or “crofting” as it is called 
technically, is still practiced extensively in 
both Scotland and Ireland. The process 
includes a number of boilings, rubbings, 
and lye baths, besides the actual ex¬ 
posure of the fabric to sun and air. Thir¬ 
ty-one days are required for crofting lin¬ 
en. Many housekeepers still prefer to buy 
unbleached sheeting and trust to repeated 
launderings to make the cloth white, claim¬ 
ing that the cloth is stronger than that 
bleached by modern chemical methods. 

The details of the modern bleaching 
processes are chiefly those of steaming, 
steeping, boiling, and washing in chlorine 
water and other lye and cleansing waters. 
The webs of cloth are sewed together in 
one continuous piece measuring from 300 


to 1,000 yards in length. This cloth is 
drawn through the various solutions by 
the action of rollers on which it is wound. 

Chlorine is prepared for use by intro¬ 
ducing chlorine gas into a chamber, the 
floor of which is covered with pure slaked 
lime. By dint of occasional stirring the 
lime absorbs over half of its own weight 
of chlorine. Large factories at Niagara 
Falls are employed in the production of 
this chloride of lime or bleaching pow¬ 
der for use in linen and cotton mills. 

If either cotton or linen is to be printed, 
it must be bleached until chemically pure, 
or the action of the coloring matter may 
be interfered with. This is called “print- 
bleaching.” If it is to remain plain white, 
it need be bleached only until it satisfies 
the eye. This is “white bleaching.” 

Wool and silk are bleached with sul¬ 
phur. The goods are hung in the upper part 
of a close room called a “sulphur stove,” 
and subjected to the fumes of burning 
sulphur. The natural coloring matter is 
not destroyed by this process, but the sul¬ 
phur combines with the coloring matter to 
produce a colorless compound. If wool 
or silk fabric bleached by this process is 
subjected to several washings with soap 
containing potash, this colorless compound 
is destroyed and the natural yellowish col¬ 
or of the fiber reappears. This is why 
wool and silk are said to “grow yellow” 
by washing. See Chlorine; Sulphur. 

Bleak House, a novel by Charles Dick¬ 
ens published in 1853. In this story the 
chief characters belong to a less humble 
stratum of society than those in most of 
Dickens’ tales. Esther Summerson is the 
heroine of the story, and through a life 
of nobleness and loving self-sacrifice is 
led at last to happiness. As a sort of sec¬ 
ondary theme, Dickens introduces the fa¬ 
mous case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, a sat¬ 
ire on the Court of Chancery. His graphic 
pictures of the trouble and misfortune 
caused by long delays due to the compli¬ 
cated forms of procedure in this court are 
said to have been influential in securing 
subsequent reforms in this department of 
English jurisprudence. Mrs. Jellyby, neg¬ 
lecting her family that she may devote 
her time to Borrioboola-Gha and the “na- 


BLENDE—BLINDNESS 


tives;” Mr. Jamdyce, giving himself to 
kind deeds and complaining that “the 
wind is east;” Little Jo, always “movin' 
on;” Mr. Skimpole, refusing to under¬ 
stand anything connected with money; 
Grandfather Smallweed; Mr. Turvey- 
drop; the unhappy Lady Dedlock,—these 
are the figures that Bleak House brings to 
mind. Many regard it as Dickens’ best 
novel. He himself said, “In Bleak House, 
I have purposely dwelt upon the romantic 
side of familiar things.” 

Blende, an ore of zinc. See Zinc. 

Blenheim, blen'im, a village of Bava¬ 
ria situated twenty-three miles northwest 
of Augsburg. Several important battles 
have taken place in its vicinity, the chief 
of which, known as the battle of Blen¬ 
heim, occurred August 13, 1704. Marl¬ 
borough and Prince Eugene, at the heads 
of the united forces of Holland, England, 
Austria, and the German Empire, won a 
notable victory over the forces of France 
and Bavaria. It is estimated that about 
100,000 men were engaged, about evenly 
divided between the opposing sides. The 
French lost 10,000 killed and wounded; 
many were drowned in the Danube, and 
13,000 were taken prisoners. In conse¬ 
quence of this victory the name Blenheim 
became popular in England. The govern¬ 
ment of Queen Anne rewarded Marlbor¬ 
ough handsomely. A fine estate near Ox¬ 
ford was presented to him, and its name 
was changed to Blenheim Park. A mag¬ 
nificent palace, called Blenheim House, 
was erected on it at an expense of $3,000,- 
000. The battle of Blenheim is the sub¬ 
ject of a well known poem by Robert 
Southey, closing: 

“And everybody praised the duke. 

Who this great fight did win.” 

“But what good came of it at last?” 

Quoth little Peterkin. 

“Why, that I cannot tell,” said he, 

“But ’twas a famous victory.” 

See Marlborough. 

Blennerhasset, Harman, an Anglo- 
American adventurer (1764-1831). He be¬ 
longed to a wealthy, well educated, Eng¬ 
lish family. Having married his own 
niece, he was ostracized by English socie¬ 
ty and driven to sell his estates. He mi¬ 
grated to America, and established a home 


on an island in the Ohio River a few 
miles below Parkersburg, West Virginia. 
His palace, grounds, pictures, and statu¬ 
ary were the admiration of all travelers. 
He entertained with lavish hospitality. 
Aaron Burr drew him into schemes for 
the establishment of an independent em¬ 
pire in the west. He invested a great sum 
in arms, ammunition, boats, and provisions. 
He was arrested on a charge of treason, 
but was discharged finally. His home, 
however, had, by this time, been ruined. 
His grounds had been turned into a hemp 
field, and his mansion used for a granary. 
He bought a cotton plantation on the 
lower Mississippi, but failed in this, as 
well as other commercial enterprises and 
returned finally to England. He died on 
the island of Guernsey. See Burr. 

Bleriot, Louis, the first person to cross 
the English Channel by means of an aero¬ 
plane. See Airship. 

Blight, a general term applied to any 
diseased condition of plants, which causes 
withering, decaying, or premature death 
of the plant, either as a whole or in part. 
It has been somewhat indiscriminately 
used to describe this result, whether due 
to fungous disease, insects, or insufficient 
food supply. More specifically, the word 
blight is used for a kind of mildew, vari¬ 
eties of it affecting fruits and vegetables 
most seriously, the more common being 
apple, pear, grape, tomato and potato 
blights. 

Blindness, inability to see. Some 
children are blind from birth, others are 
blinded by accidents. Watchmakers not 
infrequently lose their eyesight from in¬ 
tense looking at small bits of wheelwork. 
Chemical fumes are injurious to the eye¬ 
sight. Glassblowers and iron smelters 
frequently lose their sight, and in old age 
the humors of the eye are likely to dry 
up. The number of blind in the United 
States is about 50,568. 

The sense of hearing is likely to be 
developed in the blind to a high degree. 
Many become skillful piano tuners, teach¬ 
ers of music, and organists in churches. 
They are obliged to rely on their other 
senses, so that the sense of touch becomes 
very acute. It becomes so fine in some 


BLINDNESS 


cases that they can detect counterfeit coin 
without hesitation. Many blind people 
find employment, also, in factories as mak¬ 
ers of baskets, rope, twine, and matting. 
Special efforts have been made to educate 
the blind and to print books for their use. 
For a long time the plan of embossing or 
raising the surface of paper to imitate 
the shape of ordinary letters was followed. 
About a third of the blind become able to 
read raised print readily by following it 
across the page with the tips of the fin¬ 
gers. 

Of late, the raised letter method has 
been abandoned, largely at least, in favor 
of a system of points pricked upward in 
the paper. Each sound has its particular 
point or points, which the finger can rec¬ 
ognize more readily than the raised letter. 
The blind are able to write by pricking out 
their sentences on the wrong side of the 
paper. They take great satisfaction in ex¬ 
changing letters of this sort. They keep 
their business accounts in the same man¬ 
ner. Typewriting machines have been 
made for the benefit of the blind with 
type that pricks holes in the paper. 

The London library for the blind con¬ 
tains 8,000 volumes. An average volume 
in ordinary type makes from ten to fifteen 
bulky volumes in the Braille system. The 
Bible occupies thirty-five volumes. The 
library includes the most famous English 
novels, histories, and biographies. 

In 1879 Congress set aside an appropri¬ 
ation of $250,000 to be invested in United 
States bonds, the income to be used annu¬ 
ally in printing texts and miscellaneous 
books for the blind for free distribution 
to schools in the several states in propor¬ 
tion to their attendance. The catalogue of 
books thus available already includes the 
best literature, and standard works in 
every branch of science, history, and art. 

The Maryland School for the Blind has 
issued a dictionary of 40,000 words in 
eighteen volumes. The blind have two or 
three point print periodicals of their own, 
and quite an extensive musical library. 
In printing point or braille, as it is called, 
the copy is first pricked in a sheet of brass. 
Any number of sheets of paper may be 
pricked by pressing them on the sheet of 


brass. Point printing or braille is largely 
the invention of Louis Braille, an ingen¬ 
ious blind Frenchman. The first ten fig¬ 
ures used to represent the first ten letters 
of the alphabet, also the ten figures or 
digits of arithmetic, are as follows: 

ABCDEFGHIJ 

• •• • ••••• • • 
• • •• * • • •• ••• •• 

1 23456789 10 

Braille is written by placing a strip of 
perforated tin on the paper. The tin 
is divided into small checks or squares 
each containing six holes in the form of 

:: Each check is for a letter. The writ¬ 
er pricks holes through such perforations 
as will form the desired letter. The slip 
of tin is slid down the page as the work 
progresses. Braille writing is really a sort 
of stencil work consisting entirely of pin 
holes. 

Education of the Blind. An Italian 
writer in 1646 first called attention to the 
possibility of educating the blind. But 
it was a long time before the sentiment 
awakened by this writer matured into 
practice. In 1784 Valentin Haiiy estab¬ 
lished in Paris the first school for the blind 
youth. Mr. Haiiy was also the inventor 
of books with raised letters which enabled 
his pupils to learn to read by the sense 
of touch. The success of this school was 
such that a school for the blind was opened 
in England. The early work of this school 
consisted chiefly in training in the manual 
arts. The movement spread rapidly over 
Europe and before the outbreak of the 
great war practically every country had 
institutions for educating the blind. 

From the beginning the United States 
has recognized the education of the blind 
as the work of the state, and every state 
supports a school for the blind or provides 
for their education in an institution in an 
adjoining state. The first school for the 
blind in America was founded in Boston, 
Mass., and was incorporated by the Legis¬ 
lature in 1829 as the New England Asylum 
for the Blind. Work was begun in 1831 
under the direction of Dr. Samuel Gridley 
Howe, who remained at the head of the 
institution for 45 years. Col. Thomas H. 
Perkins gave his mansion and the name 


BLISS—BLIZZARD 


was changed to the Perkins Institution and 
Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. From 
the beginning the success of the school was 
phenomenal. The other New England 
states promptly took measures to secure for 
their blind children the benefits of this in¬ 
struction and sent their blind pupils to 
the Massachusetts institution. 

The literary department included the 
common school branches, and mathematics, 
physics, astronomy and other secondary 
school subjects. A department of music 
gave the pupils the advantages of vocal 
and instrumental training. The foundation 
for an orchestra was laid—piano tuning 
was taught as a practical vocation and 
other trades such as broom and brick 
making were taught. Careful attention 
was given to the welfare of the pupils and 
they were led to consider themselves as a 
part of the great school-going public. 
Under Dr. Howe’s administration the 
school attained the reputation of the lead¬ 
ing school for the blind in the world, a 
reputation which it continues to hold. 

All other schools in the United States 
have followed the plan developed in the 
Massachusetts school, and throughout the 
country the blind are taught to be self- 
supporting, self-respecting and useful. 

Both raised letters and point systems 
are used in teaching the blind to read. The 
point system is usually preferred because 
the blind can write it. Typewriters with 
point instead of the regular alphabet are 
in use in schools for the blind. Geography 
is taught by relief maps, and libraries con¬ 
taining the best work of literature are 
found in all institutions for the blind, and 
in the Congressional Library at Washing¬ 
ton a special reading room is set apart for 
their convenience. 

Causes of Blindness. Some children 
are born blind, some become blind from 
diseases of the eye or otherwise, and*blind¬ 
ness comes to some through accident. 1 he 
diseases of the eye most likely to cause 
blindness are inflammation of the membrane 
that covers the lids and eyeballs known as 
conjunctivitis; granulated lids or trachoma 
and infection of the conjunctiva of new¬ 
born infants or opthalmia neonatorum. 
The disease usually appears on the second 


or third day after birth. Its symptoms are 
swollen eyelids and a discharge of pus. 
This disease causes one-third of the blind¬ 
ness in children. The eyes should be 
thoroughly cleansed with cotton and water, 
then two or three drops of two per cent 
solution of nitrate of silver should be 
dropped into them. 

Bliss, Tasker Howard (1853- ), an 

American army officer, was born at Lewis- 
burg, Pa. He was graduated from the 
United States Military Academy in 1875, 
and from the United States Artillery School 
in 1884. From 1885 to 1888, he was pro¬ 
fessor of military science at the United 
States War College, and was for a time 
the military attache of the American lega¬ 
tion at Madrid, Spain. He served in Porto 
Rico and Cuba, and later became collector 
of customs at Havana, and chief of the 
Cuban customs service. He was made 
brigadier-general in 1902 and made a mem¬ 
ber of the Army War College Board; later 
he was made commandant of the Army 
War College. Gen. Bliss held commands 
in the Philippines and on the Mexican bor¬ 
der, and was made assistant chief of staff 
in 1915. In 1917 he was made a general, 
and in the same year accompanied the com¬ 
mission sent to Paris to attend the inter¬ 
allied war conference. 

Blizzard, a severe snowstorm. A gen¬ 
uine blizzard is heralded by a mild thaw 
drawn suddenly to a close by a black, low¬ 
ering sky, and is characterized by a furi¬ 
ous wind, blinding fine snow, and extreme 
cold. The famous blizzard of January, 
1888, extended from North Dakota to 
Texas. The thermometer fell suddenly in 
localities from 74° F. to —40° F. The 
total loss of human life is not known, but 
235 deaths were recorded. Snow sifted 
through the walls of straw stables and 
packed in around the animals as they 
stood. Many cattle, tramping the snow be¬ 
neath them, broke out through the flat 
straw roofs and fled before the storm. Some 
reached groves and other places of safety. 
Others were impaled on fences or fell into 
ravines, where they were found the next 
spring. The storm overwhelmed the cattle 
of the plains, involving the loss of mil¬ 
lions of dollars. Branch railroad lines 


BLOCKADE 


were so buried in snow that trains were 
abandoned till spring released them from 
the drifts. Heavy snowstorms along the 
Atlantic coast not infrequently block 
traffic, break down telegraph wires, and 
cause much loss of life and property. The 
velocity of the wind is quite as high, but 
the eastern storm lacks the extreme cold 
and the dust-like penetration of fine, dry 
snow that characterizes the western bliz¬ 
zard. See Snow; Weather Bureau. 

Armounced by all the trumpets of the sky, 
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields, 
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air 
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven, 
And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end. 
The sled and traveler stopped, the courier’s feet 
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit 
Around the radiant fireplace, inclosed 
In a tumultuous privacy of storm. 

—Emerson, The Snowstorm. 

Blockade, a stoppage of legal commer¬ 
cial intercourse with the ports of an 
enemy. In time of war it is considered le¬ 
gitimate to prevent the ships of neutral na¬ 
tions from visiting the coasts and entering 
the ports of an enemy. International law 
requires that due notice shall be given. 
This warning may be conveyed to neutral 
governments by a general diplomatic no¬ 
tification, or warning may be given to 
individual ships. It is a breach of inter¬ 
national law for a shipowner to attempt to 
pass in or out after a blockade has been es¬ 
tablished. If caught by the patrolling 
ships of the blockading power, the ship 
may be confiscated. The cargo goes with 
the ship, unless the owner can prove that 
he is not the owner of the ship, and that 
he did not know that his cargo was run¬ 
ning the blockade, or intend that it should 
do so. 

In order that a blockade may be rec¬ 
ognized by neutral nations, it must be 
made effective. If we were at war with 
Mexico and were to notify the nations that 
the coast of Mexico was in a state of 
blockade, and yet patrol the coast with an 
inadequate force, say a single warship, 
this condition of affairs would be held to 
be what is known as a paper blockade. 
If our single ship happened to capture 
a merchant vessel carrying the British flag, 
for instance, the government of Great 
Britain might very properly insist that the 


ship be restored to its owner, on the 
ground that the blockade had not been 
made effective. To make a blockade ef¬ 
fective it is necessary to patrol the coast 
in question and guard the harbors with 
enough ships to make it dangerous to at¬ 
tempt to go in or out. 

During our Civil War our government 
notified all foreign countries that the ports 
of the South were in a state of blockade. 
Warships were sent to patrol the harbors. 
For a time blockade running to bring out 
the cotton much needed by English mills 
was a hazardous but profitable occupation. 
The headquarters of the blockade runners 
were in the Bahama Islands. Business 
rose from a few thousands a year to 
$23,000,000 during this period. After the 
blockade became more effective, English 
ships were shut out entirely, and cotton 
was burned to prevent its falling into the 
hands of federal troops. 

The most striking blockade of modern 
times was declared during the wars be¬ 
tween France and England at the begin¬ 
ning of the last century. Napoleon gave 
Prussia Hanover as the price of closing 
Prussian ports against English ships. 
Prussia had a perfect right to do so. Eng¬ 
land, by way of retaliation against Prus¬ 
sia and France, declared the coast from 
the mouth of the Elbe River to Brest un¬ 
der blockade. As a matter of course it 
was impossible for England to maintain 
this blockade; but nevertheless British 
vessels were able to cause coastwise com¬ 
merce infinite annoyance. It was dan¬ 
gerous to enter a port or leave a port 
through that entire stretch of coast. In 
1806 Napoleon issued his famous Berlin 
decree declaring the entire British coast 
in a state of blockade. He forbade the 
ships of all nations to enter British wa¬ 
ters. England returned with the no less 
noted “orders in council,” extending the 
blockade already declared, forbidding the 
ships of any nation to enter or leave con¬ 
tinental ports from Italy to Prussia. 
These blockades were of little value to 
either England or France. They caused 
great distress. The owners of ships car- 
rying neutral flags were obliged to tie 
up lest some French or English mew-of- 


UL.UCKHU U Stt—BI jOOD 


war should confiscate them. Ships were 
afraid to 'sally out; trade languished; 
merchants were distressed; goods spoiled 
for want of transportation. These block¬ 
ades came to an end, of course, even be¬ 
fore the close of the Napoleonic wars. 

During the Great War, the Allies 
blockaded the ports of the Central Powers 
so effectively that they drove the com¬ 
merce of these powers from the sea. When 
Germany found that she was unable to 
break the blockade, she declared it illegal. 
Germany’s blockade of British ports was 
only partially successful. 

Blockhouse, a sort of fortification 
much used by the American settlers as a 
defense against the Indians. In its sim¬ 
plest form, it is a log house pierced with 
port holes for the use of riflemen. The 
typical colonial blockhouse was large 
enough to accommodate a force 'of from 
twenty-five to one hundred men. A base¬ 
ment was excavated in which women and 
children might remain secure from chance 
bullets. The walls were built of logs 
hewed and closely joined, sometimes of 
two thicknesses, so as to intercept bullets. 
A second story very frequently extended 
a few feet beyond the lower story, so that 
an enemy approaching the walls might 
be dislodged by an attack from above. 
Several blockhouses were frequently con¬ 
nected by a curtain or wall, in such a way 
as to inclose an area into which stock 
could be driven for protection. These 
walls were constructed of logs set upright 
in a trench so closely together that they 
formed a barrier against the arrows and 
bullets of the foe. A fort of this sort is 
more properly, however, called a stockade. 

Block System, a method of preventing 
collisions on railways. According to this 
plan a line of railway is divided into sec¬ 
tions guarded at each end by signal towers 
or semaphores operated by local officials 
in constant communication by telegraph. 
No train is allowed to enter a section un¬ 
til the display of a wooden arm on the 
signal tower indicates that the section is 
clear. In this manner no two trains are 
on the same section of track. If signals 
are displayed properly and obeyed, col¬ 
lisions are impossible. See Railroad. 


Blondel, a celebrated French minstrel 
of the twelfth century. He was a favorite 
of Richard the Lion Hearted, and ac¬ 
companied him to Palestine. On his re¬ 
turn Richard was imprisoned by the em¬ 
peror of Austria. Blondel set out to find 
his friend and master and wandered, it 
is said, from castle to castle seeking him. 
Learning that some illustrious captive was 
confined in the tower of a certain Aus¬ 
trian castle, he stationed himself at a dis¬ 
tance and began to sing a song that he 
and Richard had sung together in former 
days. No sooner had Blondel sung the 
first stanza than a well known voice took 
up the song and finished it. Having thus 
located his master, Blondel repaired to 
England with all speed, and set on foot 
measures for Richard’s release. The sto¬ 
ry may not be true, but it is a delightful 
account of friendship. It has given rise 
to the expression, “the faithful Blondel.” 
See Richard I; The Talisman. 

Blondin, Charles (1824-1897), a dis¬ 
tinguished French acrobat. He won a 
reputation as a rope walker in his native 
France. His most distinguished perform¬ 
ances, however, took place during a tour 
of the United States. June 30, 1859, he 
crossed the Falls of Niagara on a tight 
rope. This he did in the presence of a 
crowd of 25,000 people. On the fourth 
of the following July he crossed again, 
blindfolded, trundling a wheelbarrow in 
front of him, and on the nineteenth of 
August, he crossed a third time carrying 
a man on his back. The next year he 
crossed for the fourth time walking on 
stilts. It seems incredible that any per¬ 
former should walk on a slender rope for 
a distance of several hundred feet, much 
less keep his balance when crossing a 
chasm over 300 feet in depth. It would 
seem that the moving waters below would 
cause him to lose his head. The slightest 
tremor or misstep would have sent him to 
his death. His performances took place, 
however, in the presence of thousands, in¬ 
cluding the Prince of Wales, and cannot 
be disputed. See Niagara. 

Blood, the red liquid of the body. From 
one-tenth to one-thirteenth of a healthy 
person’s body consists of blood. The 


BLOOD 


blood of a horse equals one-eighteenth of 
the body-weight; that of an ox is about 
one twenty-third. 

Blood is about eight-tenths water. This 
water keeps the organs of the body moist 
and flexible, but its chief office is to carry 
nutrients to the tissues and waste away 
from them. Although not the first to un¬ 
derstand the circulation of the blood, Dr. 
Harvey of London was the first to an¬ 
nounce distinctly that the blood is forced 
by the contraction of the heart through 
tubes or arteries to all parts, including 
the utmost extremities of the body, and 
that it is collected again by tiny drainage 
tubes which unite into larger and larger 
veins until they pour the blood back into 
the heart again. To complete its circuit, the 
blood is forced by a similar system of out¬ 
going arteries and incoming veins through 
the lungs. It is then ready for another 
trip through the body. A round trip oc¬ 
cupies from fifteen to thirty seconds. The 
blood of a horse circulates in thirty-one 
seconds. 

As stated, the water of the blood is a 
carrier. The lungs and the digestive 
system pour gases, oxygen, hydrogen, ni¬ 
trogen, sugars, salts and fats, lime, iron, 
and all kinds of food into the blood, which 
whirls the molecules along in its current 
and deposits them where they are needed 
to build up bone, muscle, sinew, and fat. 
Material no longer needed by the body 
is dumped into the veins and drained 
away, to be taken care of and expelled 
through the lungs, the kidneys, the skin, 
or the alimentary canal. Of course, the 
blood carries whatever is poured into it. 
If one’s food is unwholesome, the blood 
carries poor building material. If the 
water one drinks, the air one breathes, 
or the food one eats contains germs, the 
microbes of disease, the blood carries them 
promptly to the tissues. Malaria, for in¬ 
stance, is nothing more or less than the 
presence of countless numbers of micro¬ 
scopic animals introduced into one’s blood 
in the first instance by the bill of a cer¬ 
tain mosquito. 

Although the blood cannot refuse to 
carry germs of disease, nature has made 
a wonderful provision to render them 


harmless. The blood is full, literally 
swarming, with white, spherical corpus¬ 
cles or cells that feed on bacteria. If 
one is in health and well nourished the 
chances are that these white cells will 
take care of all harmful animals and bac¬ 
teria. In famine-stricken districts where 
the people have thin blood, lacking in 
vigorous white cells, contagious disease is 
most likely to get a footing and become 
an epidemic. 

The color of the blood is due to still 
more numerous red cells or corpuscles, in 
the proportion of ninety-nine red cells 
to one white cell. They are so numerous 
as to be beyond comprehension—5,000.000 
to a cubic millimeter. They are flat disks 
pressed inward on each face. They run 
through the fine capillaries, face to face, 
like a roll of coin. In most animals the 
red cells are circular, but in the camel and 
in reptiles they are oval. The red cells 
of the various animals differ greatly in 
size. Those of a frog are very large. 
Those of a sheep are small. Human 
corpuscles may be identified, therefore, un¬ 
der a microscope. More than one blood¬ 
stained knife and many a blood-stained 
garment has been examined to ascertain 
whether the telltale spots were caused 
by human blood. It is literally true that 
blood cries out against a murderer. 

Millions of red corpuscles break down 
in the body during every second of time. 
New ones are supplied by the red marrow 
of the bones, where they are produced and 
sent into the circulation. The number of 
red corpuscles varies with conditions. 
They increase in high latitudes. They often 
decrease during disease of the body, pro¬ 
ducing a condition called anaemia. 

The red corpuscles are the carriers of 
oxygen. Arterial blood, or blood going 
outward, has a bright red color, due to 
oxygen freshly obtained from the lungs. 
Venous blood, or blood returning through 
the veins, is dark, not only lacking oxy¬ 
gen, but laden with waste matter. The 
blood of animals is warm or cold accord¬ 
ing to the amount of oxygen it carries. 
Cold-blooded animals do not require to 
breathe so freely as the warm-blooded ani¬ 
mals. 


BLOOD AVENGER—BLOOD POISONING 


The proper temperature of the human 
body is about 98° F. The circulation of 
the blood equalizes the temperature of the 
body. Cold-blooded animals have the 
temperature of their surroundings. The 
blood does not supply enough oxygen to 
keep them warm. Warm-blooded ani¬ 
mals are supplied with oxygen from the 
blood. Their bodies possess a tempera¬ 
ture in a degree, at least, independent of 
their surroundings. The power of the 
blood to keep up the temperature of the 
body is indispensable to animal life in 
cold countries. The Eskimo, and, in 
fact, all people living in wintry climes 
would be frozen solid, were it not that the 
blood carries oxygen to all parts of the 
Sody and keeps the temperature very near- 
*.y constant at 98°. 

Blood possesses a peculiar quality of 
clotting on exposure to air. Blood is 
composed of clear liquid and of blood 
cells or corpuscles. The liquid is called 
plasma. If plasma is exposed to the air, 
threads known as fibrin are formed. 
These fibrin threads entangle and inclose 
the corpuscles, forming what is known as 
a clot. This quality of clotting or coagu¬ 
lating closes wounds, if not too serious, 
and prevents bleeding. Physiologists are 
satisfied that clotting is not due to the fact 
that blood has ceased to be in motion, 
nor is it due to exposure to the air. They 
do not know why blood clots, neither do 
they know why it does not clot while it 
is within a healthy blood vessel. 

See Malaria. 

Blood Avenger. In primitive society 
the person charged with the duty of aveng¬ 
ing the crime of murder, usually the next 
of kin. This duty and its regulation by 
law were the beginnings of our system of 
criminal law. The crimes with which 
primitive law concerns itself are those of 
violence, namely, murder, wounding and 
robbery. The punishment was not left to 
the state, but to the injured person, or 
his next of kin. This legalized right was 
called blood feud, which, in course of time 
became mitigated by the doctrine of sanctu¬ 
ary, which held vengeance in abeyance until 
time had cooled the passions and the justi¬ 
fication of the act could be made apparent. 


The law of Moses recognized this insti¬ 
tution of primitive society, but put it under 
regulations, prohibiting the commutation 
of the penalty, and appointing “cities of 
refuge’’ for the slayer who was not really 
a murderer. The avenging of blood by 
the next of kin is sanctioned by the Koran, 
but also makes provision for the expiation 
of the crime by a money payment. The 
primitive custom is in force among the 
Arabs to this day. 

Bloodhound. See Dog. 

Blood Money. The compensation paid 
in early law to the next of kin of the slain 
man, securing the murderer or offender 
and his relatives against subsequent retalia¬ 
tion. This custom was in use in the north¬ 
ern countries of Europe until after the 
introduction of Christianity. The amount 
to be paid was fixed by law, as well as to 
whom it was to go. It was not limited to 
cases of manslaughter alone, but was ex¬ 
tended to all crimes of violence. Slaying 
a person when asleep or in church was 
considered a “bootless” crime, or one for 
which no money compensation could be 
made. Such a crime was a breach of the 
king’s peace and the offender was outlawed 
and abandoned to his enemies. In these 
cases, even, in one of the barbaric codes of 
the Middle Ages, the guilty person “may 
redeem himself from the wilderness with 
40 marks when the injured party has inter¬ 
ceded for him.” 

Blood Poisoning, a disease caused by 
the presence in the blood of bacteria, or 
germs, which become lodged in various 
parts of the body, setting up local points 
of infection. In medical works blood 
poisoning is usually known as septicaemia. 
Abscesses may form, and suppuration of 
the intestines may follow. Typhoid fever 
or appendicitis may occur as secondary com¬ 
plications. Blood poisoning may ensue 
from such slight injuries as a scratch or 
bruise, which if not immediately treated 
with antiseptics may result in infection. 

Blood poisoning is marked by chills, 
sweating and high fever; the tongue is 
coated, brown and furred, and sometimes 
there is rapid emaciation, in fact, the whole 
system seems to sympathize. The disease 
may run its course in a comparatively shcf 


BLOODROOT—BLOWGUN 




period, and again may last for months, 
sometimes terminating fatally. 

Treatment consists in eliminating the 
original point of infection, opening new 
abscesses, and draining any cavities of 
fluids. Stimulants, together with tonics, 
such as iron and quinine, are valuable 
adjuncts in the treatment of this disease. 
But, as stated above, immediate measures 
of prevention are the best safeguards. 
When any injuries of the nature mentioned 
occur, it is wise to use an antiseptic at 
once. Iodine is one of the best and safest 
remedies, and it should be freely applied. 
Formerly there was great danger in opera¬ 
tions owing to ineffective sterilization, but 
modern surgical methods have to a great 
extent eliminated this danger. 

Bloodroot, a noticeable woodland 
flower of early spring. The white petals 
fall off soon after they come out. A large 
kidney-shaped leaf springs up beside each 
flower stalk. The leaves, flower stalks, 
and root-stocks are charged with a yellow¬ 
ish red juice that oozes out wherever they 
are broken. The blossom makes a hand¬ 
some starry appearance above the dead 
leaves. In spite of its disagreeable x juice 
it is endeared to children. “Bloodroots 
are out,” is always hailed as an announce¬ 
ment of the happy flower season and of 
rambles in the woods. The bloodroot is 
a member of the poppy family. It is 
found only in the eastern United States 
and Canada. The plant has valuable 
medicinal qualities allied to those of 
opium. 

BloomJield-Zeisler, Fannie ( 1866 - ), 
a well known and very popular pianist, was 
born in Bielitz, Austria. When a young 
child she came to the United States with 
her parents, who settled in Chicago. Her 
musical ability showed itself early and she 
received a thorough training in harmony, 
composition and the technique of the piano. 
She finished her studies in Vienna, where 
she remained for 5 years, a pupil of The¬ 
odore Leschetizky. In 1885 she married 
Sigmund Zeisler, a Chicago attorney. Mrs. 
Bloomfield-Zeisler has played in the lead¬ 
ing cities of the United States and Europe, 
and has everywhere been acclaimed as one 
of the great artists of our day. 


Bloomington, a city of Illinois, one 

hundred twenty-six miles from Chicago. 

It is the county seat of McLean County, 
and is on the Illinois Central, the Chicago 
& Alton, and other railroads. Blooming¬ 
ton is a busy and prosperous city. There 
are manufactories of stoves, farm imple¬ 
ments, and machinery; there are railroad 
shops, brickyards, furnaces, and flour mills, 
while coal-mining, fruit-canning and pork 
packing are among the industries. The city 
owns its system of waterworks and its elec¬ 
tric light plant. It has a public library 
and a handsome city hall. The Illinois 
Wesleyan University is here and at Nor¬ 
mal, two miles distant, is a State Normal 
School and the State Soldiers’ Home. A 
high school was erected some time ago at a 
cost of $400,000. Besides these, there are 
many other educational facilities, such as 
business colleges, schools for music, and a 
other institutions. Population, 1920,28,725.1 

Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana, J 
the seat of the Indiana State University,! 
is situated about sixty miles from Indian-1 
apolis, on the Illinois Central, and the j 
Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville rail- ^ 
roads. Its area is over two square miles. 

It is located in a large limestone quarry 
district, which gives employment to many 
people. Other flourishing industries are 
the making of furniture, hardware and 
leather products. 

In addition to the university, which has 
a library of 5,000 volumes, there are sev¬ 
eral high schools, and a Carnegie library. 
The most important buildings are those 
of the university, the post office, and a 
Methodist church, built in 1913 at a cost 
of $150,000. The Indiana University 
Park, which comprises ten acres, is the 
largest park in the town. Bloomington, 
also called the “University City,” has a 
population of 11,595. 

Blowgun, a primitive weapon used es¬ 
pecially by some Indian tribes of South 
America. It consists of a tube or blow¬ 
pipe from ten to twelve feet long, ingen¬ 
iously constructed by setting one palm 
stem within another so as to prevent warp¬ 
ing. An arrow about two feet in length 1 
is made from the spine of another palm. 

It is wound with cotton down to make l 





















































































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